sol2/docs/source/threading.rst
ThePhD 074b9ae655 add xmove constructors for function, (light )userdata, table, reference and object
add additional coroutine example
improve traits
add tests for thread transfers
update single
2017-09-11 16:12:23 -04:00

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threading
=========
Lua has no thread safety. sol2 does not force thread safety bottlenecks anywhere.
Assume any access or any call on Lua affects the whole global state (because it does, in a fair bit of cases). Therefore, every call to a state should be blocked off in C++ with some kind of access control. When you start hitting the same state from multiple threads, race conditions (data or instruction) can happen. Individual Lua coroutines might be able to run on separate C++-created threads without tanking the state utterly, since each Lua coroutine has the capability to run on an independent Lua thread which has its own stack, as well as some other associated bits and pieces that won't quite interfere with the global state.
To handle multithreaded environments, it is encouraged to either spawn mutliple Lua states for each thread you are working with and keep inter-state communication to synchronized serialization points. Using coroutines and Lua's threads might also buy you some concurrency and parallelism, but remember that Lua's threading technique is ultimately cooperative and requires explicit yielding and resuming (simplified as function calls for :doc:`sol::coroutine<api/coroutine>`).
working with multiple Lua threads
---------------------------------
You can mitigate some of the pressure of using coroutines and threading by using the ``lua_xmove`` constructors that sol implements. Simply keep a reference to your ``sol::state_view`` or ``sol::state`` or the target ``lua_State*`` pointer, and pass it into the constructor along with the object you want to copy. For example:
.. codeblock:: cpp
:caption: transfer from state function
:name: state-transfer
#define SOL_CHECK_ARGUMENTS
#include <sol.hpp>
#include <iostream>
int main (int, char*[]) {
sol::state lua;
lua.open_libraries();
sol::function transferred_into;
lua["f"] = [&lua, &transferred_into](sol::object t, sol::this_state this_L) {
std::cout << "state of main : " << (void*)lua.lua_state() << std::endl;
std::cout << "state of function : " << (void*)this_L.lua_state() << std::endl;
// pass original lua_State* (or sol::state/sol::state_view)
// transfers ownership from the state of "t",
// to the "lua" sol::state
transferred_into = sol::function(lua, t);
};
lua.script(R"(
i = 0
function test()
co = coroutine.create(
function()
local g = function() i = i + 1 end
f(g)
g = nil
collectgarbage()
end
)
coroutine.resume(co)
co = nil
collectgarbage()
end
)");
// give it a try
lua.safe_script("test()");
// should call 'g' from main thread, increment i by 1
transferred_into();
// check
int i = lua["i"];
assert(i == 1);
return 0;
}