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<concept id="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067" xml:lang="en"><title>Common

Error Patterns - Execution Order</title><shortdesc>Describes a few common error patterns based on thread priority

and multiple active threads in an SMP environment.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>

<p>The majority of errors found while testing SMP code are not actually caused

by SMP but are multi-threaded code errors that become more likely to occur

on an SMP system.</p>

<p>Many of these errors are caused by the developer making assumptions about

how the scheduler will prioritise some threads, and suspend execution of other

threads while the higher priority thread completes. Even on a single core

system these assumptions can fail if the higher priority thread is not ready

to run or has to wait for a resource, and the scheduler continues execution

of the original thread. </p>

<p>Because many of the common error patterns are caused by the same thread

execution assumptions and errors, the solution to many of them is the same:

write good code that doesn't make assumptions but explicitly enforces execution

order or waits until asynchronous events are complete.</p>

<p>Examples of common errors that are caused by thread execution order are:</p>

<ul>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-D4EBB98F-3B2E-496D-BFDC-2C67B973D7B2">Relying

on linear execution</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-5A105681-CB00-411A-B668-D40AE38AC670">Deleting/re-creating

kernel objects</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-23075EA6-3B4F-4643-AF48-543650D821D8">Passing

stack variables or temporary variables to an asynchronous service</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-E21B5F86-F54C-44A2-A470-4655A37C6DA3">Making

asynchronous calls that pass a TRequestStatus without calling WaitForRequest()

afterwards</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-903D3074-254D-4639-9EBB-196A06736301">Relying

on thread priority for execution order</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-925A024E-06E4-439B-B324-E16BDF5C06BD">Relying

on thread priority for publish and subscribe execution order</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-C1A9B0A2-9423-468F-8B29-45001717B9C2">Other

race conditions due to unexpected thread ordering</xref></p></li>

<li><p><xref href="GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067.dita#GUID-93C75E31-6155-48F1-B99C-92ECD0B2C067/GUID-ED30D34F-6976-493E-A869-9A906A5CBDA5">Using

non-Symbian synchronisation APIs</xref></p></li>

</ul>

<section id="GUID-D4EBB98F-3B2E-496D-BFDC-2C67B973D7B2"><title>Relying on

linear execution</title><p>On a single-processor system, the scheduler usually

grants execution to another thread when the active thread returns from a function

or calls a waiting primitive. This can lead to two kinds of assumptions: assuming

that the other thread will not execute until a later stage, or assuming that

the active thread will block on an asynchronous function call. You must not

rely on either of these, especially on an SMP system.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-5A105681-CB00-411A-B668-D40AE38AC670"><title>Deleting/re-creating

kernel objects</title><p>Kernel objects are objects derived from <codeph>RHandleBase</codeph>,

such as threads, semaphores, mutexes. processes and timers. They each have

a name that must be unique within the system and are managed by the supervisor

thread. </p><p>If you ask for such a kernel object to be deleted, there may

be a delay before the asynchronous deletion completes. If you try to create

an object with the same name before the kernel has deleted the original object,

the creation will fail. In general it is not possible to determine whether

the kernel has completed the deletion: although there are some APIs that can

be used during development, they are not available for use on a live system. </p><p>For

that reason it is important to not reuse names, but to always create kernel

objects with a new unique name for each object. There are APIs available for

many kernel objects to provide new unique names. It is also possible for you

to write your own unique name generator.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-23075EA6-3B4F-4643-AF48-543650D821D8"><title>Passing stack

variables or temporary variables to an asynchronous service</title><fig id="GUID-693794EA-6FB9-489D-823C-C2EA7AA6ACC2">

<title>Passing data on the stack</title>

<image href="GUID-0CDD535C-9F46-43F3-A1CC-1A4A0E74629A_d0e16489_href.png" placement="inline"/>

</fig><p>When execution leaves a function, the variables that are local to

the function are deallocated from the stack. If you pass local variables as

parameters to an asynchronous function, you must make sure that the other

thread's execution happens before the data is removed from the stack. It is

much better to use objects that persist over the lifetime of an asynchronous

call: for example, a class member variable..</p><p>Likewise, deleting an object

after it has been passed to an asynchronous function but before the service

is provided will cause application errors and possibly device panics</p></section>

<section id="GUID-E21B5F86-F54C-44A2-A470-4655A37C6DA3"><title>Making asynchronous

calls that pass a TRequestStatus without calling WaitForRequest() afterwards</title><p>On

a single-processor system, calling a waiting primitive always relinquishes

execution control to the scheduler. With adequate thread priorities, the scheduler

may then run the thread in charge of the request. However, this assumption

is not true on an SMP system, where both threads might execute at the same

time. </p><p>Therefore,  you must use a synchronisation primitive to ensure

that the asynchronous request is complete before continuing on to any code

that relies on the completion of that request.</p><p>As for any other asynchronous

request, it is important to wait for the request to complete. Use <xref href="GUID-FF234B6F-8AFA-3CE7-A911-16BC4443702B.dita"><apiname>WaitForRequest()</apiname></xref> to

ensure that the other thread has finished processing the asynchronous call

before the calling thread can safely progress.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-903D3074-254D-4639-9EBB-196A06736301"><title>Relying on

thread priority for execution order</title><p>On an SMP system, you cannot

assume execution order from thread priority. Use semaphores and mutexes to

ensure that the execution order is safe.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-925A024E-06E4-439B-B324-E16BDF5C06BD"><title>Relying on

thread priority for publish and subscribe execution order</title><p>As the

notification thread and the subscription thread might execute at the same

time, use synchronisation primitives to ensure that your listener is ready

before publishing, and that it is notified before the publication channel

is deleted.</p><p>See <xref href="GUID-314FAEB5-946C-4090-B6AA-1BEEC9BE8EFB.dita">Common

Error Patterns - Case Studies</xref> for an example of a Publish and Subscribe

error pattern.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-C1A9B0A2-9423-468F-8B29-45001717B9C2"><title>Other race

conditions due to unexpected thread ordering </title><p>It is expected that

there may be other race conditions between threads and as these are identified

this document will be updated to describe them.</p></section>

<section id="GUID-ED30D34F-6976-493E-A869-9A906A5CBDA5"><title>Using non-Symbian

synchronisation APIs</title><p>The Symbian synchronisation and IPC primitives

protect data and control thread execution on an SMP system. There is no guarantee

that non-Symbian APIs will give the same protection. For SMP-safe code, only

use the Symbian synchronisation APIs .</p><p>See <xref href="GUID-9D93F895-B975-4F2D-A2A3-817033EA5C12.dita">Data

Integrity and Memory Barriers</xref> , <xref href="GUID-1F280171-A3F3-4129-8DBE-3B1C4D629C68.dita">Atomic

Operations</xref> and <xref href="GUID-16AED228-539F-4BF7-A7FD-9A01FF1A9A84.dita">Locking</xref> for

useful synchronisation and atomic operation APIs.</p></section>

</conbody><related-links>

<link href="GUID-E55F9286-F586-4665-93D8-86F1E7BE2C7C.dita"><linktext>SMP Developer

Tips</linktext></link>