This mini-repository has my very own implementation of a lock-free queue (that I designed from scratch) for C++.
It only supports a two-thread use case (one consuming, and one producing). The threads can't switch roles, though you could use this queue completely from a single thread if you wish (but that would sort of defeat the purpose!).
Note: If you need a general-purpose multi-producer, multi-consumer lock free queue, I have one of those too.
This repository also includes a circular-buffer SPSC queue which supports blocking on enqueue as well as dequeue.
std::queue
, you never need to allocate memory for elements yourself (which saves you the hassle of writing a lock-free memory manager to hold the elements you're queueing)try_enqueue
method which is guaranteed never to allocate memory (the queue starts with an initial capacity)enqueue
method which can dynamically grow the size of the queue as neededtry_emplace
/emplace
convenience methodswait_dequeue
Simply drop the readerwriterqueue.h (or readerwritercircularbuffer.h) and atomicops.h files into your source code and include them :-) A modern compiler is required (MSVC2010+, GCC 4.7+, ICC 13+, or any C++11 compliant compiler should work).
Note: If you're using GCC, you really do need GCC 4.7 or above -- 4.6 has a bug that prevents the atomic fence primitives from working correctly.
Example:
using namespace moodycamel; ReaderWriterQueue<int> q(100); // Reserve space for at least 100 elements up front q.enqueue(17); // Will allocate memory if the queue is full bool succeeded = q.try_enqueue(18); // Will only succeed if the queue has an empty slot (never allocates) assert(succeeded); int number; succeeded = q.try_dequeue(number); // Returns false if the queue was empty assert(succeeded && number == 17); // You can also peek at the front item of the queue (consumer only) int* front = q.peek(); assert(*front == 18); succeeded = q.try_dequeue(number); assert(succeeded && number == 18); front = q.peek(); assert(front == nullptr); // Returns nullptr if the queue was empty
The blocking version has the exact same API, with the addition of wait_dequeue
and wait_dequeue_timed
methods:
BlockingReaderWriterQueue<int> q; std::thread reader([&]() { int item; #if 1 for (int i = 0; i != 100; ++i) { // Fully-blocking: q.wait_dequeue(item); } #else for (int i = 0; i != 100; ) { // Blocking with timeout if (q.wait_dequeue_timed(item, std::chrono::milliseconds(5))) ++i; } #endif }); std::thread writer([&]() { for (int i = 0; i != 100; ++i) { q.enqueue(i); std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(10)); } }); writer.join(); reader.join(); assert(q.size_approx() == 0);
Note that wait_dequeue
will block indefinitely while the queue is empty; this means care must be taken to only call wait_dequeue
if you're sure another element will come along eventually, or if the queue has a static lifetime. This is because destroying the queue while a thread is waiting on it will invoke undefined behaviour.
The blocking circular buffer has a fixed number of slots, but is otherwise quite similar to use:
BlockingReaderWriterCircularBuffer<int> q(1024); // pass initial capacity q.try_enqueue(1); int number; q.try_dequeue(number); assert(number == 1); q.wait_enqueue(123); q.wait_dequeue(number); assert(number == 123); q.wait_dequeue_timed(number, std::chrono::milliseconds(10));Using targets in your project
Using this project as a part of an existing CMake project is easy.
In your CMakeLists.txt:
include(FetchContent)
FetchContent_Declare(
readerwriterqueue
GIT_REPOSITORY https://github.com/cameron314/readerwriterqueue
GIT_TAG master
)
FetchContent_MakeAvailable(readerwriterqueue)
add_library(my_target main.cpp)
target_link_libraries(my_target PUBLIC readerwriterqueue)
In main.cpp:
#include <readerwriterqueue.h> int main() { moodycamel::ReaderWriterQueue<int> q(100); }Installing into system directories
As an alternative to including the source files in your project directly, you can use CMake to install the library in your system's include directory:
mkdir build
cd build
cmake ..
make install
Then, you can include it from your source code:
#include <readerwriterqueue/readerwriterqueue.h>
The queue should only be used on platforms where aligned integer and pointer access is atomic; fortunately, that includes all modern processors (e.g. x86/x86-64, ARM, and PowerPC). Not for use with a DEC Alpha processor (which has very weak memory ordering) :-)
Note that it's only been tested on x86(-64); if someone has access to other processors I'd love to run some tests on anything that's not x86-based.
See the LICENSE.md file for the license (simplified BSD).
My blog post introduces the context that led to this code, and may be of interest if you're curious about lock-free programming.
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