Week 32 contribution of PDK documentation content. See release notes for details. Fixes bug Bug 3582
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<!DOCTYPE concept
PUBLIC "-//OASIS//DTD DITA Concept//EN" "concept.dtd">
<concept id="GUID-24477051-265A-5FE5-B479-ACB3EE27B825" xml:lang="en"><title>Synchronisation
Techniques</title><shortdesc>Describes the use of <codeph>RThread::Rendezvous()</codeph> to
synchronize threads.</shortdesc><prolog><metadata><keywords/></metadata></prolog><conbody>
<p>There are a number of techniques to synchronize or coordinate the activities
of your threads with one another: </p>
<ul>
<li id="GUID-E5EC8F8C-2129-5750-AFDC-F4B15E3874C9"><p> <xref href="GUID-24477051-265A-5FE5-B479-ACB3EE27B825.dita#GUID-24477051-265A-5FE5-B479-ACB3EE27B825/GUID-68FCE30C-5487-501E-842C-6895717FD636">Thread Rendezvous</xref> </p> </li>
</ul>
<section id="GUID-68FCE30C-5487-501E-842C-6895717FD636"><title>Thread Rendezvous</title> <p>The <xref href="GUID-B0E661BC-4058-3256-B9C3-5A4FD52F6DE5.dita#GUID-B0E661BC-4058-3256-B9C3-5A4FD52F6DE5/GUID-83AADCC6-1AD8-32D8-A6E6-B86B47C97DC2"><apiname>RThread::Rendezvous()</apiname></xref> function
allows a thread to signal that it has reached a point in its execution. This
works in a similar way to the <xref href="GUID-77B673ED-F7EE-3D50-88A7-F8FBFCB2D64E.dita"><apiname>Logon()</apiname></xref> function, except
that <xref href="GUID-77B673ED-F7EE-3D50-88A7-F8FBFCB2D64E.dita"><apiname>Logon()</apiname></xref> signals the termination of a thread, and <xref href="GUID-45C22917-DC6E-3C95-BFE5-B8E9B316D4E3.dita"><apiname>Rendezvous()</apiname></xref> signals
that a particular point within the thread has been reached. </p> <p>The classic
use for this function is in a server, where the main thread must wait until
the initialisation of the server thread has completed before continuing. </p> </section>
<section id="GUID-7A87E7D5-255B-4626-ADB0-7A8F3F839C3C"><title>Using Rendezvous</title> <p>The
following example shows code a function creating a thread and then waiting
for it to reach a certain point before continuing. The code shown here is
taken from <filepath>…\examples\base\threadsandprocesses\Rendezvous\</filepath>,
which you can build and run. </p> <codeblock id="GUID-292F2672-390D-5D14-9615-8894315A1645" xml:space="preserve"> // create threads to wait for
RThread thread;
// indicate completion status
TRequestStatus myThreadRendezvousStatus;
// pass 500 as the parameter to MyThread
TInt r=thread.Create(KMsgMyThreadName, MyThread, KDefaultStackSize, KHeapSize,KHeapSize,(TAny*) 2000000, EOwnerThread);
if (r!=KErrNone)
{
console->Printf(KMsgCreateThreadFailed);
return;
}
// create rendezvous
thread.Rendezvous(myThreadRendezvousStatus);
//EXCECUTE THREAD!
console->Printf(KMsgStartThread);
thread.Resume();
User::WaitForRequest(myThreadRendezvousStatus);
if(myThreadRendezvousStatus==KErrNone)
{
console->Printf(KMsgThreadRendezvousReached);
}
else
{
console->Printf(KMsgSomethingIsWrong);
}
thread.Close();
console->Printf(KMsgEndOfTest);</codeblock> <p>The following function
is the <codeph>MyThread()</codeph> function created in the previous example.
The <codeph>MyThread()</codeph> function calls the rendezvous function to
signal that the rendezvous point has been reached, <codeph>MyThread()</codeph> can
then continue. </p> <codeblock id="GUID-94F0244E-B3E8-54F0-9BD8-6BB8942BA30F" xml:space="preserve">TInt MyThread(TAny* aParameter)
{
// simulate some processing
User::After((TInt)aParameter);
// signal Rendezvous
RThread::Rendezvous(KErrNone);
// simulate some processing
User::After((TInt)aParameter);
return(KErrNone);
}</codeblock> <note><p> <codeph>MyThread()</codeph> can fail before signalling
the <xref href="GUID-251A11AD-1D92-3F9C-AAEF-3D0FC9728C7E.dita"><apiname>Rendezvous</apiname></xref>, for example, if <codeph>MyThread()</codeph> panics
with a <codeph>KERN-EXEC 3</codeph>, then the <xref href="GUID-251A11AD-1D92-3F9C-AAEF-3D0FC9728C7E.dita"><apiname>Rendezvous</apiname></xref> completes
with the reason code <codeph>KErrDied</codeph> or another system wide error
code other than <codeph>KErrNone</codeph>. </p></note><p>If <xref href="GUID-B3606A64-D3FB-3B92-8675-FBFD57675564.dita"><apiname>MyThread()</apiname></xref> enters
a never ending loop before the rendezvous is reached, then this situation
cannot be detected and results in the calling thread waiting indefinitely
for the rendezvous. This can be avoided by careful programming. </p> </section>
</conbody></concept>