main doesn't continue after call pthread_join function - c

Question

I'm new to pthread and multithreading, i have written a code like that.
#include <pthread.h>
#include <unistd.h>
void *nfc_read(void *arg)
{
int fd = -1;
int ret;
uint8_t read_data[24];
while(1){
ret = read_block(fd, 8, read_data);
if(!ret){
return (void)read_data;
}
}
}
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
pthread_t my_thread;
void *returnValue;
pthread_create(&my_thread, NULL, nfc_read, NULL);
pthread_join(my_thread, &returnValue);
printf("NFC card value is : %s \n", (char)returnValue);
printf("other process");
return 0;
}
Until the return value from nfc_read function, as I will have other code I need to run and I don't want to block in main. How can i do that?

Answer 1

This is a sample where a read thread runs concurrently to the "main" thread which is doing other work (in this case, printing dots and sleeping).
To keep things simple, a simulated the reading from an input device with copying a constant string character by character. I guess, this is reasonable as the synchronization of threads is focused.
For the synchronization of threads, I used atomic_bool with atomic_store() and atomic_load() which are provided by the Atomic Library (since C11).
My sample application test-concurrent-read.c:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdatomic.h>
#include <unistd.h>
/* sampe input */
const char sampleInput[]
= "This is sample input which is consumed as if it was read from"
" a (very slow) external device.";
atomic_bool readDone = ATOMIC_VAR_INIT(0);
void* threadRead(void *pArg)
{
char **pPBuffer = (char**)pArg;
size_t len = 0, size = 0;
int c; const char *pRead;
for (pRead = sampleInput; (c = *pRead++) > 0; sleep(1)) {
if (len + 1 >= size) {
if (!(*pPBuffer = realloc(*pPBuffer, (size + 64) * sizeof(char)))) {
fprintf(stderr, "ERROR! Allocation failed!\n");
break;
}
size += 64;
}
(*pPBuffer)[len++] = c; (*pPBuffer)[len] = '\0';
}
atomic_store(&readDone, 1);
return NULL;
}
int main()
{
/* start thread to read concurrently */
printf("Starting thread...\n");
pthread_t idThreadRead; /* thread ID for read thread */
char *pBuffer = NULL; /* pointer to return buffer from thread */
if (pthread_create(&idThreadRead, NULL, &threadRead, &pBuffer)) {
fprintf(stderr, "ERROR: Failed to start read thread!\n");
return -1;
}
/* start main loop */
printf("Starting main loop...\n");
do {
putchar('.'); fflush(stdout);
sleep(1);
} while (!atomic_load(&readDone));
putchar('\n');
void *ret;
pthread_join(idThreadRead, &ret);
/* after sync */
printf("\nReceived: '%s'\n", pBuffer ? pBuffer : "<NULL>");
free(pBuffer);
/* done */
return 0;
}
Compiled and tested with gcc in cygwin on Windows 10 (64 bit):
$ gcc -std=c11 -pthread -o test-concurrent-read test-concurrent-read.c
$ ./test-concurrent-read
Starting thread...
Starting main loop...
.............................................................................................
Received: 'This is sample input which is consumed as if it was read from a (very slow) external device.'
$
I guess, it is worth to mention why there is no mutex guarding for pBuffer which is used in main() as well as in threadRead().
pBuffer is initialized in main() before pthread_create() is called.
While thread_read() is running, pBuffer is used by it exclusively (via its passed address in pPBuffer).
It is accessed in main() again but not before pthread_join() which grants that threadRead() has ended.
I tried to find a reference by google to confirm that this procedure is well-defined and reasonable. The best, I could find was SO: pthread_create(3) and memory synchronization guarantee in SMP architectures which cites The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 7 - 4.12 Memory Synchronization.