Take the following C program, in which two threads concurrently use fwrite to the same file. Each thread loops, writing a line over and over. What do you expect the output file to look like?
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <unistd.h>
int main() {
FILE* h = fopen("file.txt", "a");
if (h == NULL) { perror("Could not open file for appending"); exit(1); }
if (fork() == 0) {
char* line = "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa\n";
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {
if (fwrite(line, strlen(line), 1, h) != 1) { perror("Could not append line to file"); exit(1); }
}
if (fclose(h) != 0) { perror("Could not close file"); exit(1); }
} else {
char* line = "bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb\n";
for (int i = 0; i < 10000; i++) {
if (fwrite(line, strlen(line), 1, h) != 1) { perror("Could not append line to file"); exit(1); }
}
if (fclose(h) != 0) { perror("Could not close file"); exit(1); }
}
return 0;
}
Looking at the output file, we find bits like this:
...
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
...
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
aaaaaaaabbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
bbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbbb
...
If fwrite were atomic, we would see random interleavings of lines, but here we see random interleavings of characters.
Actually, it’s worse than being non-atomic - we have invoked undefined behavior! POSIX says:
This volume of POSIX.1-2008 does not specify behavior of concurrent writes to a file from multiple processes. Applications should use some form of concurrency control.
I wrote this because I felt like it. This post is my own, and not associated with my employer.
Jim. Public speaking. Friends. Vidrio.