A class which provides a relatively platform-independent thread primitive. More...
#include <system-thread.h>
Public Member Functions | |
SystemThread (Callback< void > callback) | |
Create a SystemThread object. | |
~SystemThread () | |
Destroy a SystemThread object. | |
void | Ref (void) const |
void | Unref (void) const |
void | Start (void) |
Start a thread of execution, running the provided callback. | |
void | Join (void) |
Suspend the caller until the thread of execution, running the provided callback, finishes. |
A class which provides a relatively platform-independent thread primitive.
This class allows for creation of multiple threads of execution in a process. The exact implementation of the thread functionality is operating system dependent, but typically in ns-3 one is using an environment in which Posix Threads are supported (either navively or in the case of Windows via Cygwin's implementation of pthreads on the Win32 API. In either case we expect that these will be kernel-level threads and therefore a system with multiple CPUs will see truly concurrent execution.
Synchronization between threads is provided via the SystemMutex class.
ns3::SystemThread::SystemThread | ( | Callback< void > | callback | ) |
Create a SystemThread object.
A system thread object is not created running. A thread of execution must be explicitly started by calling the Start method. When the Start method is called, it will spawn a thread of execution and cause that thread to call out into the callback function provided here as a parameter.
Like all ns-3 callbacks, the provided callback may refer to a function or a method of an object depending on how the MakeCallback function is used.
The most common use is expected to be creating a thread of execution in a method. In this case you would use code similar to,
MyClass myObject; Ptr<SystemThread> st = Create<SystemThread> ( MakeCallback (&MyClass::MyMethod, &myObject)); st->Start ();
The SystemThread is passed a callback that calls out to the function MyClass::MyMethod. When this function is called, it is called as an object method on the myObject object. Essentially what you are doing is asking the SystemThread to call object->MyMethod () in a new thread of execution.
Remember that if you are invoking a callback on an object that is managed by a smart pointer, you need to call PeekPointer.
Ptr<MyClass> myPtr = Create<MyClass> (); Ptr<SystemThread> st = Create<SystemThread> ( MakeCallback (&MyClass::MyMethod, PeekPointer (myPtr))); st->Start ();
Just like any thread, you can synchronize with its termination. The method provided to do this is Join (). If you call Join() you will block until the SystemThread run method returns.
void ns3::SystemThread::Ref | ( | void | ) | const [inline] |
void ns3::SystemThread::Unref | ( | void | ) | const [inline] |