Unix Systems Programming: Lab 9 - pThreads

Purpose and Rationale

The purpose of this lab is to allow students to become comfortable with Multithreaded Programming using the POSIX Pthreads API.

Primary Resouces:

FAQ (submission instructions and other useful stuff)
There are several references for this labs

• Lecture 9 is the primary reference for this lab
• Kerrisk, A Linux and UNIX System Programming Handbook, Chapters 29-33, 51
  
• Butenhof, Programming with POSIX Threads, Chapters 1-5 and 8
• Molay, Understanding Unix/Linux Programming, Chapter 14
  Provides an example of a web server which is implemented using threads.
• Course FAQ page has several links to online resources and examples of using threads.

All work should be done on a machine in the department's Linux cluster. You can refer to ssh for more information on how to log into a remote machine.

Marks Distribution

Lab 9 : Pthreads

Project

Your code for Lab 8 was designed to support multiple clients, but one client at a time. You kept clients waiting until your server finished handling the current client. In this lab you will extend your spell-checker to support multiple clients at the same time.

• Your server will set-up the socket and wait for clients
• When a client is recieved your server will create a thread to handle the client's request.
• The server will continue to wait for new client requests.
• The thread will handle its client's request then exit.

You should use synchronization mechanisms (such as mutexes) to protect any shared data you might use.

Building

Be sure to confirm that your environment is configured correctly.  In general, to build pthread code on linux, you simply use the -pthread flag, as in:

gcc -pthread -o my_thread my_thread.c

You can use test by building the samples included in the following:

• You will find a sample Makefile in Butenhof.
• You will also find samples in the Kerrisk code located in ~mark/pub/51081/kerrisk.code/.

Deliverables

Carefully follow the 4 steps below.

1. Create a directory:
          lab9
2. This directory will contain:
   • All C files needed to build your client and server.
     Your client can be exactly the same as you used in Lab 8.
   • A file named Makefile, which will build both your client and server, when make is entered on the command line. In addition, your make file must contain a target clean which will remove all executables created by make when make clean is entered on the command line.
   • There should be no object files or executable files in your submission. Please make sure that all back-up files generated by emacs (*~) are removed.
3. When you are finished with your directory you will create a compressed archive file using tar (this utility stores your directory as a single file, then compresses its size.)
          tar -czvf   username.lab9.tgz   username.lab9
   


4. You will email your file to our TA as an attachment. He will send an acknowledgement that your assignment has been received.

To	Nicholas Flees (nickflees@uchicago.edu)
Attachment	username.lab9.tgz
Subject	CSPP51081-lab9