Subject: Re: [Boost-users] question on boost::interprocess
From: Ion Gaztañaga (igaztanaga_at_[hidden])
Date: 2008-10-23 12:47:44
Markos.Perrakis_at_[hidden] wrote:
>
> I have created a shared memory segment with the *boost::interprocess*
> library and have created and populated a *boost::interprocess::map* in
> that segment. The key for the map is the *boost::interprocess::string*
> class.
>
> If I want to search for an element in the map I obviously have to supply
> the key for the element. Here is what I do:
>
> {
> std::string key;
> // assign here a value to key string object
>
> const Char_Alloc char_alloc(
> (shared_memory_segment_obj.get_segment_manager() ) );
> boost::interprocess::string some_string( char_alloc );
>
> some_string.assign( key.c_str() );
> }
>
> where *Char_Alloc *is a suitable shared memory allocator for plain
> characters.
Can't you just assign directly to the shared memory string?
{
const Char_Alloc char_alloc(
(shared_memory_segment_obj.get_segment_manager() ) );
boost::interprocess::string some_string( char_alloc );
some_string.insert(...);
}
> As you can see from the code the key (the some_string object) for the
> map is created in local memory (in-process memory) but the contents of
> the string are allocated in shared memory.
Yes. sizeof(some_string) bytes are in the stack, the dynamically
allocated buffer in shared memory. I admit this is a bit annoying, but
you can and I would try to offer a better alternative for this, maybe
following Intrusive practica of offering overloaded find, count,
lower_bound taking an external key type that is comparable with the
internal one. But expect to see it in Boost 1.38/39 ;-)
> If two threads access this shared memory segment and execute the above
> code at the same time, is this thread safe? Will the two concurrent
> *assign()* statements use the same location in shared memory and cause
> overlaps? Or is the shared memory allocator smart enough to synchronize
> the two *assign() *calls and execute them sequencially?
It's thread-safe. Think about shared memory as the same as a call to
new[](). If to threads do this, they are thread-safe because each string
obtains a different buffer. The same happens for shared memory, each
string will allocate a different buffer. It would be different if the
some_string itself was in shared memory, just like if you access to the
very same std::string from two different threads.
Regards,
Ion