Need clarification on file_lock documentation

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Assessment

Difficulty
4/5
Estimated time
3-5 days
Newbie friendliness
35/100
Issue type
Documentation
Clarity
Needs clarification
Activity status
Stale
Tech stack
cpp

Research direction

Start with the boost::interprocess::file_lock documentation and reproduce the behavior using the C++ example included in the issue. Determine whether the documented thread and process guidance is incorrect or merely unclear; done means the documentation or implementation question has a resolved, verified explanation.

Written by the indexing model from the issue text.

Description

The documentation of boost::interprocess::file_lock has some cautions on synchronization limitations:

  • It's unspecified if a file_lock synchronizes two threads from the same process.
  • It's unspecified if a process can use two file_lock objects pointing to the same file.

But then gives the guidance:

  • For each file, use a single file_lock object per process.
  • Use the same thread to lock and unlock a file.

I then created the following example:
https://wandbox.org/permlink/dO2rRDCHVWBE3pGrhttps://wandbox.org/permlink/3CNfkA3RcMkwbd2v

#include <fstream> 
#include <iostream> 
#include <cstdlib> 
#include <boost/interprocess/sync/file_lock.hpp> 
#include <boost/interprocess/sync/scoped_lock.hpp> 
#include <boost/filesystem.hpp> 
#include <mutex> 
#include <thread> 
#include <chrono> 
int main() 
{ 
    std::ofstream("f.txt"); 
    boost::interprocess::file_lock lock("f.txt"); 
    std::mutex mtx; 
    const size_t max = 100; 
    size_t t1Count = 0; 
    std::thread 
        t1 
        ( 
            [&lock,&t1Count,&mtx,max]() 
            { 
                while(t1Count < max) 
                { 
                    //std::lock_guard<std::mutex> mtxLock(mtx); 
                    boost::interprocess::scoped_lock<boost::interprocess::file_lock> guard(lock); 
                    std::cout << "Number 1" << std::endl; 
                    t1Count++; 
                    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(1)); 
                } 
            } 
        ); 
    size_t t2Count = 0; 
    std::thread 
        t2 
        ( 
            [&lock,&t2Count,&mtx,max]() 
            { 
                while(t2Count < max) 
                { 
                    //std::lock_guard<std::mutex> mtxLock(mtx); 
                    boost::interprocess::scoped_lock<boost::interprocess::file_lock> guard(lock); 
                    std::cout << "Number 2" << std::endl; 
                    t2Count++; 
                    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::milliseconds(1)); 
                } 
            } 
        ); 
    t1.join(); 
    t2.join(); 
    return 0; 
} 

It only works properly if the std::mutex is used in addition to the file_lock. That was originally my thought when I read "It's unspecified if a file_lock synchronizes two threads from the same process.", but it seemed like I was following the guidance "Use the same thread to lock and unlock a file.". If I haven't messed anything up, I would probably update the documentation to say something like:
"If utilitizing the file_lock from multiple threads within the same process, synchronize access to the file_lock with an intraprocess synchronization mechanism such as a mutex."

Otherwise, is it a bug?

Thanks,
Rob

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