Re: phpthreads - hints anyone...

Alan Knowles wrote:

Ok, had a play with this updated copy on http://docs.akbkhome.com/threads.tgz added a few of pthreads calls to TSRM.c did most of the testing without this abstraction layer - just to see if I could get it to work. used php_exectute_script, rather than getting clever and copying the function/class hashtables. results: It worked (with a few caveats - that are just a matter of getting to know threading better)... some of the issues: -if the child thread finishes before the main one - then the main one needs to wait somehow..

Do you mean the other way around?

** FIX = probably need to keep a count of threads that are running and block at MSHUTDOWN on the main thread if stuff is still going.

The thread variable needs to be a resource, or tracked somehow, by the parent thread. Each parent thread needs to wait for child threads before ending.

-the child thread needs to have the modules functions loaded before it starts running really - otherwise you get intermitant 'functions not available' if you dont dl() the module in the child thread.

Fixed by loading in ini file.

** FIX = I need to look at the pthreads equivalant for tsrm_wait_event(thread.start_event,TSRM_INFINITE); will be.. this should make sure that the main thread doesnt do anything while the main thread is starting up..

I'm writing up rough equivelents to this, using pthread_cond_* functions. It will need work by someone using linux.

- php_request_shutdown(NULL); calls the MSHUTDOWN for all modules - a good example of where this cause trouble is the ext/standard/string.c MSHUTDOWN, which has a static mutex that is freed. (and would be freed twice when the main thread finishes) - hence php_request_shutdown(), probably doesnt want to be called on a thread completion.. ** FIX = not sure? - does this need fixing or should we just ignore php_request_shutdown......

This is because you are dl'ing the module. When you do that, *unfortunately*, the module is unloaded per request. In the module shutdown, we should wait for all threads that were started to shutdown. But the use of a global mutex should not be necessary once things are more developed. Loading from ini will fix this. Shane