Re: [PATCH] Futures: Avoid creating the worker pool more than once

[Mark H Weaver]

address@hidden (Ludovic Courtès) writes:

> Mark H Weaver <address@hidden> skribis:
>
>> +  ;; setting 'create-workers!' to a no-op is an optimization, but it is
>> +  ;; still possible for '%create-workers!' to be called more than once
>> +  ;; from different threads.  Therefore, to avoid creating %workers more
>> +  ;; than once (and thus creating too many threads), we check to make
>> +  ;; sure %workers is empty within the critical section.
>
> Do you have a scenario where this happens?

I'd hoped that the comment above was clear, but let me try again.

If two threads simultaneously call 'make-future' before the worker pool
has been created, then both threads can call 'create-workers!' (before
it has been rebound), and from there both can enter '%create-workers!'.

At that point, unless one of the threads is killed, it is guaranteed
that both will enter the critical section: first one, and then the other
(after the first one has unlocked the mutex).  Thus, two worker pools
will be created (though the first worker pool will become inaccessible).

      Mark