Asynchronous Programming with C++: Build blazing-fast software with multithreading and asynchronous programming for ultimate efficiency

Cover....1

Table of Contents ....8

Preface....16

Part 1: Foundations of Parallel Programming and Process Management....22

Chapter 1: Parallel Programming Paradigms....24

Technical requirements....24

Getting to know classifications, techniques, and models....25

Systems classification and techniques....25

Parallel programming models....27

Understanding various parallel programming paradigms....30

Synchronous programming....31

Concurrency programming....31

Asynchronous programming....34

Parallel programming....34

Multithreading programming....35

Event-driven programming....35

Reactive programming....35

Dataflow programming....37

Exploring the metrics to assess parallelism....37

Degree of parallelism....37

Amdahl’s law....38

Gustafson’s law....39

Summary....40

Further reading....40

Chapter 2: Processes, Threads, and Services....42

Processes in Linux....43

Process life cycle – creation, execution, and termination....43

Exploring IPC....44

Services and daemons in Linux....47

Threads....49

Thread life cycle....50

Thread scheduling....51

Synchronization primitives....52

Choosing the right synchronization primitive....52

Common problems when using multiple threads....53

Strategies for effective thread management....54

Summary....56

Further reading....56

Part 2: Advanced Thread Management and Synchronization Techniques....58

Chapter 3: How to Create and Manage Threads in C++....60

Technical requirements....61

The thread library – an introduction....61

What are threads? Let’s do a recap....61

The C++ thread library....62

Thread operations....62

Thread creation....62

Synchronized stream writing....64

Sleeping the current thread....66

Identifying a thread....67

Passing arguments....68

Returning values....69

Moving threads....71

Waiting for a thread to finish....71

Joining threads – the jthread class....74

Yielding thread execution....76

Threads cancellation....78

Catching exceptions....82

Thread-local storage....84

Implementing a timer....85

Summary....88

Further reading....88

Chapter 4: Thread Synchronization with Locks....90

Technical requirements....90

Understanding race conditions....91

Why do we need mutual exclusion?....93

C++ Standard Library mutual exclusion implementation....95

Problems when using locks....101

Generic lock management....102

std::lock_guard....103

std::unique_lock....104

std::scoped_lock....105

std::shared_lock....105

Condition variables....106

Implementing a multithreaded safe queue....108

Semaphores....116

Binary semaphores....116

Counting semaphores....117

Barriers and latches....122

std::latch....122

std::barrier....123

Performing a task only once....127

Summary....129

Further reading....129

Chapter 5: Atomic Operations....130

Technical requirements....130

Introduction to atomic operations....131

Atomic operations versus non-atomic operations – an example....131

When to use (and when not to use) atomic operations....132

Non-blocking data structures....133

The C++ memory model....134

Memory access order....135

Enforcing ordering....138

Sequential consistency....139

Acquire-release ordering....142

Relaxed memory ordering....144

C++ Standard Library atomic types and operations....145

C++ Standard Library atomic types....145

C++ Standard Library atomic operations....146

Example – simple spin-lock implemented using the C++ atomic flag....147

An example of thread progress reporting....150

Example – simple statistics....151

Example – lazy one-time initialization....156

SPSC lock-free queue....159

Why do we use a power of 2 buffer size?....160

Buffer access synchronization....160

Pushing elements into the queue....161

Popping elements from the queue....162

Summary....164

Further reading....165

Part 3: Asynchronous Programming with Promises, Futures, and Coroutines....166

Chapter 6: Promises and Futures....168

Technical requirements....168

Exploring promises and futures....169

Promises....170

Futures....173

Shared futures....177

Packaged tasks....178

The benefits and drawbacks of promises and futures....181

Benefits....182

Drawbacks....182

Examples of real-life scenarios and solutions....182

Canceling asynchronous operations....183

Returning combined results....184

Chaining asynchronous operations....186

Thread-safe SPSC task queue....191

Summary....194

Further reading....195

Chapter 7: The Async Function....196

Technical requirements....196

What is std::async?....197

Launching an asynchronous task....197

Passing values....198

Returning values....200

Launch policies....201

Handling exceptions....204

Exceptions when calling std::async....206

Async futures and performance....207

Limiting the number of threads....210

When not to use std::async....212

Practical examples....212

Parallel computation and aggregation....212

Asynchronous searches....214

Asynchronous matrix multiplication....218

Chain asynchronous operations....221

Asynchronous pipeline....222

Summary....227

Further reading....227

Chapter 8: Asynchronous Programming Using Coroutines....228

Technical requirements....229

Coroutines....229

C++ coroutines....230

New keywords....231

Coroutines restrictions....232

Implementing basic coroutines....232

The simplest coroutine....232

A yielding coroutine....236

A waiting coroutine....241

Coroutine generators....245

Fibonacci sequence generator....245

Simple coroutine string parser....249

The parsing algorithm....249

The parsing coroutine....251

Coroutines and exceptions....254

Summary....255

Further reading....255

Part 4: Advanced Asynchronous Programming with Boost Libraries....256

Chapter 9: Asynchronous Programming Using Boost.Asio....258

Technical requirements....259

What is Boost.Asio?....259

I/O objects....260

I/O execution context objects....261

The event processing loop....266

Interacting with the OS....267

Synchronous operations....267

Asynchronous operations....268

The Reactor and Proactor design patterns....270

Threading with Boost.Asio....271

Single-threaded approach....272

Threaded long-running tasks....273

Multiple I/O execution context objects, one per thread....274

Multiple threads with a single I/O execution context object....275

Parallelizing work done by one I/O execution context....276

Managing objects’ lifetime....278

Implementing an echo server – an example....278

Transferring data using buffers....282

Scatter-gather operations....283

Stream buffers....284

Signal handling....286

Canceling operations....288

Serializing workload with strands....290

Coroutines....297

Summary....301

Further reading....301

Chapter 10: Coroutines with Boost.Cobalt....304

Technical requirements....304

Introducing the Boost.Cobalt library....305

Eager and lazy coroutines....306

Boost.Cobalt coroutine types....306

Boost.Cobalt generators....307

Looking at a basic example....307

Boost.Cobalt simple generators....308

A Fibonacci sequence generator....311

Boost.Cobalt tasks and promises....313

Boost.Cobalt channels....317

Boost.Cobalt synchronization functions....319

Summary....323

Further reading....323

Part 5: Debugging, Testing, and Performance Optimization in Asynchronous Programming....324

Chapter 11: Logging and Debugging Asynchronous Software....326

Technical requirements....326

How to use logging to spot bugs....327

How to select a third-party library....328

Some relevant logging libraries....328

Logging a deadlock – an example....330

How to debug asynchronous software....334

Some useful GDB commands....334

Debugging multithreaded programs....336

Debugging race conditions....339

Reverse debugging....341

Debugging coroutines....343

Summary....346

Further reading....346

Chapter 12: Sanitizing and Testing Asynchronous Software....348

Technical requirements....348

Sanitizing code to analyze the software and find potential issues....349

Compiler options....350

AddressSanitizer....352

LeakSanitizer....355

ThreadSanitizer....356

UndefinedBehaviorSanitizer....363

MemorySanitizer....363

Other sanitizers....364

Testing asynchronous code....365

Testing a simple asynchronous function....366

Limiting test durations by using timeouts....367

Testing callbacks....368

Testing event-driven software....369

Mocking external resources....370

Testing exceptions and failures....373

Testing multiple threads....374

Testing coroutines....376

Stress testing....380

Parallelizing tests....381

Summary....381

Further reading....381

Chapter 13: Improving Asynchronous Software Performance....384

Technical requirements....384

Performance measurement tools....385

In-code profiling....385

Code micro-benchmarks....388

The Linux perf tool....395

False sharing....400

CPU memory cache....403

Cache coherency....404

SPSC lock-free queue....405

Summary....409

Further reading....409

Index....410

Other Books You May Enjoy....421

Design and develop high-performance software solutions by using concurrent and asynchronous techniques provided by the most modern features in C++20 and C++23

Key Features

• Learn how to use modern C++ features, including futures, promises, async, and coroutines to build asynchronous solutions
• Develop cross-platform network and low-level I/O projects with Boost.Asio
• Master optimization techniques by understanding how software adapts to machine hardware
• Purchase of the print or Kindle book includes a free PDF eBook

Book Description

As hardware advancements continue to accelerate, bringing greater memory capacity and more CPU cores, software must evolve to adapt to efficiently use all available resources and reduce idle CPU cycles. In this book, two seasoned software engineers with about five decades of combined experience will teach you how to implement concurrent and asynchronous solutions in C++. You’ll gain a comprehensive understanding of parallel programming paradigms—covering concurrent, asynchronous, parallel, multithreading, reactive, and event-driven programming, as well as dataflows—and see how threads, processes, and services are related. Moving into the heart of concurrency, the authors will guide you in creating and managing threads and exploring C++’s thread-safety mechanisms, including mutual exclusion, atomic operations, semaphores, condition variables, latches, and barriers. With this solid foundation, you’ll focus on pure asynchronous programming, discovering futures, promises, the async function, and coroutines. The book takes you step by step through using Boost.Asio and Boost.Cobalt to develop network and low-level I/O solutions, proven performance and optimization techniques, and testing and debugging asynchronous software. By the end of this C++ book, you’ll be able to implement high-performance software using modern asynchronous C++ techniques.

Who is this book for?

This book is for developers who have some experience using C++, regardless of their professional field. If you want to improve your C++ skills and learn how to develop high-performance software using the latest modern C++ features, this book is for you.

What you will learn

• Explore the different parallel paradigms and know when to apply them
• Acquire deep knowledge of thread management and safety mechanisms
• Understand asynchronous programming in C++, including coroutines
• Leverage network asynchronous programming by using Boost.Asio and Boost.Cobalt
• Add proven performance and optimization techniques to your toolbox
• Find out how to test and debug asynchronous software