pthread API equivalents of semaphores in semaphore.h

Question

This question is related to a solution to the producer/consumer problem I'm working on. We were asked to use pthreads to solve the problem. In order to create my empty and full semaphores for the bounded buffer, I used semaphore.h, but I was told there is a method for accomplishing this without semaphore.h.

Is there a standard method for creating semaphores using the pthread API? That is, is there a simple equivalent to the following using pthreads only:

sem_init(&full, 0, 0);
sem_init(&empty, 0, BUFFER_SIZE);
sem_wait(&empty);
sem_post(&full);
etc.

Thanks for any info you can give me on this topic.

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Mar 25 '15 at 01:22

0

The <semaphore.h> functions (sem_init() / sem_open() etc. ) are the pthreads semaphore API.

Perhaps you are being guided towards using condition variables instead of sempahores to solve this problem?

answered Mar 25 '15 at 01:22

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Yes, maybe so. I asked about using semaphore.h, and was told to use pthreads instead. Could you please explain how a semaphore can be constructed using condition variables? – Victor Brunell Mar 25 '15 at 01:27
Ah, never mind. I found a good tutorial on condition variables online. Thanks for directing me to the right idea. – Victor Brunell Mar 25 '15 at 01:43
@VictorBrunell, can you share the tutorial or some insights from that tutorial? – Ganesh Kamath - 'Code Frenzy' May 27 '20 at 08:58

pthread API equivalents of semaphores in semaphore.h

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