passing Lambda to pthread_create?

Question

I search all the net for answer, but I didn't find any solution. Can you please help. My problem is I am trying to send Lambda to another function and use Pthread library to run the lambda across several threads. Next is the code:

  1    #include <iostream>
  2    #include <stdlib.h>
  3    #include <pthread.h>
  4    #include <vector>
  5 
  6    using namespace std;
  7 
  8 
  9   template<class InputIt, class Function>
 10    inline Function parallel_fun(InputIt first, InputIt last, Function f)
 11    {
 12         pthread_t threads[4];
 13 
 14       for (int i=0; first != last; ++first) {
 15 
 16          pthread_create(&threads[i], nullptr,f , nullptr);
 17 
 18           i++;
 19        }
 20 
 21      for (int i=0; i<4;i++) {
 22 
 23          pthread_join(threads[i],nullptr);
 24 
 25 
 26        }
 27 
 28 
 29 
 30 
 31    return f;
 32   }
 33 
 34 
 35    int main()
 36   {
 37    int z=90;
 38    vector<int> a(4);
 39     a[0]=1; a[1]=2;
 40     parallel_fun(a.begin(), a.end(), [=](void* data) -> void*
 41                     {
 42          cout<<"test"<<z<<endl;
 43            //do something
 44          });
 45 
 46 
 47 
 48 return 0;
 49 }

I compile using the following line: g++ -std=c++0x -pthread test.cpp -o a

and I receive this error:

test.cpp: In function ‘Function parallel_fun(InputIt, InputIt, Function) [with InputIt = __gnu_cxx::__normal_iterator<int*, std::vector<int> >, Function = main()::<lambda(void*)>]’:
test.cpp:44:11:   instantiated from here
test.cpp:16:10: error: cannot convert ‘main()::<lambda(void*)>’ to ‘void* (*)(void*)’ for argument ‘3’ to ‘int pthread_create(pthread_t*, const pthread_attr_t*, void* (*)(void*), void*)’

Answer 1

I am not sure about the new C++11 API. I don't think I have enough time to learn new API.

This is your lucky day. The C++11 API was strongly influenced by pthreads. There is nearly a mechanical translation. Here is your code cast in C++11:

#include <iostream>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <thread>
#include <vector>

template<class InputIt, class Function>
inline
Function
parallel_fun(InputIt first, InputIt last, Function f)
{
    std::thread threads[4];
    for (int i=0; first != last; ++first)
    {
        threads[i] = std::thread(f);
        i++;
    }
    for (int i=0; i<4;i++)
    {
        threads[i].join();
    }
    return f;
}


int main()
{
    int z=90;
    std::vector<int> a(4);
    a[0]=1; a[1]=2;
    parallel_fun(a.begin(), a.end(), [=]()
                                      {
                                        std::cout<<"test" << z << std::endl;
                                        //do something
                                      });
}

Your alternative, is to figure out how std::thread gets implemented on top of pthreads, which trust me, is much more complicated than the C++11 translation shown above.

Answer 2

There is no conversion from a lambda to a function pointer unless the lambda has no captures. (§5.1.2p6). So if you require the capture of z, you are out of luck.

The C interface expects you to use the void* argument for your closures. You could do that, which would be ugly (but C-like), or you could use the new C++11 thread support library, if your C++ environment supports it.