Project # 3 Due Date: March 17, 2022
Semaphores and Message Passing
Purpose
The goal of this homework is to become familiar with semaphores in Linux. It is a repetition of your last project with the
part that was handled by the bakery algorithm to be implemented by semaphores.
You will again use multiple concurrent processes to write into a file at random times, solving the concurrency issues using
semaphores for synchronization of processes. Your job is to create the environment such that two processes cannot write
into the file simultaneously and yet, every process gets its turn to write into the file.
Task
Generate twenty processes using a master program, called master, and make them write into a file called cstest in their
current working directory. Needless to say that all processes will use the same working directory. Each child process will
be executed by an executable called slave. The message to be written into the file is:
HH:MM:SS Queue nn File modified by process number xx
where HH:MM:SS is the current system time, nn is the number the process picked when it entered its intention to write into
the file, xx is the process number as specified by the master program. The value of xx is between 1 and 20. This implies
that the child process will be run by the command
slave xx
The critical resource is the file cstest which should be updated by a child under exclusive control access. This implies
that each slave will have a critical section that will control access to the file to write into it.
The main program master
Write master that runs up to n slave processes at a time. Make sure that n never exceeds 20. Start master by typing the
following command:
master -t ss n
where ss is the maximum time in seconds (default 100 seconds) after which the process should terminate itself if not
completed.
Implement master as follows:
- Check for the command line argument and output a usage message if the argument is not appropriate. If n is more
than 20, issue a warning and limit n to 20. It will be a good idea to #define the maximum value of n or keep it as a
configurable. - Allocate shared memory and initialize it appropriately.
- Initialize a semsphore to be used to enforce mutual exclusion. This should be initialized such that only one process
can enter the critical section at a time. - Execute the slave processes and wait for all of them to terminate.
- Start a timer for specified number of seconds (default: 100). If all children have not terminated by then, terminate
the children. - Deallocate shared memory and terminate.
Semaphores and Message Passing 2
The Application Program (slave)
The slave just writes the message into the file inside the critical section. We want to have some log messages to see that
the process is behaving appropriately. The process enters the critical section by using the semaphore that was initialized
in master.
If a process starts to execute code to enter the critical section, it must print a message to that effect in its log file. I’ll
suggest naming the log file as logfile.xx where xx is the process number for the child, passed via the command line. It
will be a good idea to include the time when that happens. Also, indicate the time in log file when the process actually
enters and exits the critical section. Within the critical section, wait for a random number of seconds (in the range [1,5])
before you write into the file, and then, wait for another [1,5] seconds before leaving the critical section. For each child
process, tweak the code so that the process requests and enters the critical section at most five times.
The code for each child process should use the following template:
for ( i = 0; i < 5; i++ )
{
acquire the semaphore
sleep for random amount of time (between 0 and 5 seconds);
critical_section(); // Write into the file
sleep for random amount of time (between 0 and 5 seconds);
release the semaphore
}
Implementation
You will be required to create the specified number of separate slave processes from your master. That is, the master will
just spawn the child processes and wait for them to finish. The master process also sets a timer at the start of computation
to specified number of seconds. If computation has not finished by this time, the master kills all the slave processes and
then exits. Make sure that you print appropriate message(s).
master will also initialize the semaphore for synchronization. It will open and close a logfile but will not open cstest.
cstest will be opened by the child process after it acquires the semaphore (before the sleep) and closed before it releases
the semaphore.
In addition, master should also print a message when an interrupt signal (^C) is received. The child processes just ignore
the interrupt signals (no messages on screen). Make sure that the processes handle multiple interrupts correctly. As a
precaution, add this feature only after your program is well debugged.
The code for master and slave processes should be compiled separately and the executables be called master and slave.
Other points to remember: You are required to use fork, exec (or one of its variants), wait, and exit to manage multiple
processes. Use semctl suite of calls for semaphores. Make sure that you never have more than 20 processes in the system
at any time, even if I specify a larger number in the command line (issue a warning in such a case).
Invoking the solution
master should be invoked using the following command:
master -t ss n
Termination Criteria: There are several termination criteria. First, if all the slaves have finished, master should
deallocate shared memory and terminate.
In addition, I expect your program to terminate after the specified amount of time as specified in config.h. This can be
done using a timeout signal, at which point it should kill all currently running child processes and terminate. It should
also catch the ctrl-c signal, free up shared memory and then terminate all children. No matter how it terminates, master
should also output the time of termination to the log file.
Semaphores and Message Passing 3
Suggested implementation steps
I suggest you implement these requirements in the following order: - Create a Makefile that compiles the two source files. [Day 1]
- Have your master read in the command line arguments, validate the arguments, and set up the semaphore. Also set
up the function to deallocate the semaphore. Use the command ipcs to make sure that the semaphore is allocated
and deallocated correctly. [Day 2] - Get master to fork and exec one child and have that child attach to shared memory and read the memory. [Day 3]
- Implement slave and test it as an independent process. [Day 4]
- Put in the signal handling to terminate after specified number of seconds. A good idea to test this is to simply have
the child go into an infinite loop so master will not ever terminate normally. Once this is working have it catch
Ctrl-c and free up the shared memory, send a kill signal to the child and then terminate itself. [Day 5] - Set up the code to fork multiple child processes until the specific limits in the loop. Make sure everything works
correctly. [Day 6] - Make each child process writes its own log file as well as cstest. [Day 7]
- Implement synchronization through the semaphore and handle critical section appropriately. [Day 8-10]
- Test the integrated solution. [Day 11-12]
If you do it in this order, incrementally, you help make sure that the basic fundamentals are working before getting to the
point of launching many processes.
Make sure you never have more than 20 processes in the system at any time, even if the program is invoked with n being
more than 20. This is a hard limit.
You should make use of the framework developed during the last project and reuse as much code as you can.
Hints
You will need to set up semaphores in this project to allow the processes to synchronize with each other. Please check
the man pages for shmget, semctl, and semop to work with semaphores. Do not forget to use perror to help with any
debugging.
You will also need to set up signal processing and to do that, you will check on the functions for signal and abort. If you
abort a process, make sure that the parent cleans up any allocated shared memory and semaphore before dying.
In case you face problems, please use the shell command ipcs to find out any shared memory and semaphores allocated to
you and free those by using ipcrm.
Please make any error messages meaningful. The format for error messages should be:
runsim: Error: Detailed error message
where runsim is actually the name of the executable (argv[0]) that you are trying to execute. These error messages may
be sent to stderr using perror.
Criteria for success
I have tried to give you detailed steps. There is not much room for change. Make sure that you follow good programming
practices including proper indentation, documentation, and Makefile with suffix rules. The log file should be appropriately
generated. You must clean up after yourself. That is, after the program terminates, whether normally or by force, there
should be no shared memory or semaphore left that is allocated to you.
Semaphores and Message Passing 4
Grading - Overall submission: 15 pts. Program compiles and upon reading, seems to be able to solve the assigned problem in
the specified manner (shared memory/semaphores/fork/exec). - README: 5 pts. Must address any special things you did, or if you missed anything.
- Makefile: 5pts. Must use suffix rules or pattern rules. You’ll receive only 2 points for Makefile without those rules.
- Command line parsing: 5 pts. Program is able to parse the command line appropriately, assigning defaults as needed;
issues help if needed. The configuration file should be properly defined, with the comments. - Use of perror: 5pts. Program outputs appropriate error messages, making use of perror(3). Errors follw the specified
format. - Code readability: 10 pts. The code must be readable, with appropriate comments. Author and date should be
identified.