[armedbear-devel] Bordeaux-threads test hangs

[James M. Lawrence]

On Mon, Mar 25, 2013 at 8:02 AM, Mark Evenson <evenson at panix.com> wrote:
>
> (test condition-variable
>   (setf *shared* 0)
>   (let ((num-procs 100))
>     (dotimes (i num-procs)
>       (make-thread
>        (compile nil
>                 `(lambda ()
>                    (with-lock-held (*lock*)
>                      (loop
>                         until (= ,i *shared*)
>                         do (condition-wait *condition-variable* *lock*))
>                      (incf *shared*))
>                    (condition-notify *condition-variable*)))))
>     (with-lock-held (*lock*)
>       (loop
>          until (= num-procs *shared*)
>          do (condition-wait *condition-variable* *lock*)))
>     (is (equal num-procs *shared*))))

The test suggests a cute idea, whether or not the original author
intended it. Typically a condition variable is used for
producing/consuming, but in this case it could be used for something
like a game of "hot potato". The bug is that the potato is not getting
passed around. The fix is to move the existing condition-notify inside
the lock and to insert a condition-notify before each condition-wait
call. In effect each participant in the game is both a consumer and a
producer -- a relay for the potato until the participant is "it".

However even with that fix the test seems irredeemable because I don't
think a cascade of condition-notifies is required to reach all waiting
threads, i.e., all participants aren't guaranteed to get the potato.
The potato could perpetually bounce between two participants, for
example. At least there's no apparent need for a Lisp implementation
to come with a "potato guarantee".