Document number:   P1869R0
Date:   2019-09-17
Audience:   Library Evolution Working Group
Reply-to:  
Tomasz Kamiński <tomaszkam at gmail dot com>
Michał Dominiak <griwes at griwes dot info>

Rename condition_variable_any interruptible wait methods

1. Introduction

This paper proposes small improved to the condition_variable_any interruptible wait interface (accepting stop_token), that makes them more consistent with the rest of the standard and more ergonomic to use.

Before After
cv.wait_until(lock, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty();
}, stop_token);
cv.wait_on(lock, stop_token, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty(); 
});
cv.wait_until(lock, time_point, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty();
}, stop_token);
cv.wait_on_until(lock, stop_token, time_point, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty(); 
});
cv.wait_for(lock, 10s, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty();
}, stop_token);
cv.wait_on_for(lock, stop_token, 10s, [&cont] {
   return cont.empty(); 
});

2. Revision history

2.1. Revision 0

Initial revision.

3. Motivation and Scope

Currently, the condition_variable_any interruptible wait methods, i.e. ones that are accepting stop_token, are defined as follows:

template<class Lock, class Predicate>
  bool wait_until(Lock& lock, Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
template<class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate>
  bool wait_until(Lock& lock, const chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time
                  Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
template<class Lock, class Rep, class Period, class Predicate>
  bool wait_for(Lock& lock, const chrono::duration<Rep, Period>& rel_time,
                Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);

The paper proposes to adjust their names and signatures to make them more consistent with the rest of the "[thread] Thread support library", by using wait_on prefix and placing stop_token as the second argument (thus making pred last).

template<class Lock, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, Predicate pred);
template<class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_until(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time
                     Predicate pred);
template<class Lock, class Rep, class Period, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_for(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::duration<Rep, Period>& rel_time,
                   Predicate pred);

3.1. Standard reserve's _until prefix for functions with absolute timeouts

In the [thread.req.timing] Timing specifications p4 the standard explicitly states that the _until prefix is used with functions that accept time_point as argument:

The functions whose names end in _until take an argument that specifies a time point. These functions produce absolute timeouts. Implementations should use the clock specified in the time point to measure time for these functions.

Out of 13 function using _until suffix, that are defined in the [thread] Thread support library

  1. this_thread::sleep_until,
  2. timed_mutex::try_lock_until,
  3. recursive_timed_mutex::try_lock_until,
  4. shared_timed_mutex::try_lock_until,
  5. shared_timed_mutex::try_lock_until,
  6. unique_lock::try_lock_until,
  7. shared_lock::try_lock_until,
  8. condition_variable::wait_until (x2),
  9. condition_variable_any::wait_until (x4).

only the condition_variable_any::wait_until method does not accept the time_point argument:

template<class Lock, class Predicate>
  bool wait_until(Lock& lock, Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);

This paper addresses above inconsistency and conflicting wording, by renaming the method to wait_on.

3.2. Predicate as last argument

Similarly to above, pre-existing non-interruptible waits methods, accept the predicate as the last argument (after lock and optional time_point/duration argument). This allows invocations, that uses lambda as the predicate, to be nicely formatted:

cv.wait_for(lock, 10s, [&cont] {
  return cont.empty();
});

However, the newly introduced interruptible waits, places the additional stop_token argument, after the predicate:

cv.wait_for(lock, 10s, [&cont] {
  return cont.empty();
}, stop_token);

This paper moves the stop_token to second the position, thus allowing:

cv.wait_on_for(lock, stop_token, 10s, [&cont] {
  return cont.empty();
});

4. Proposed Wording

The proposed wording changes refer to N4830 (C++ Working Draft, 2019-08-15).

Apply following changes to [thread.condition.condvarany] Class condition_variable_any:

// [thread.condvarany.intwait], interruptible waits
template<class Lock, class Predicate>
  bool wait_onuntil(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
template<class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_until(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time
                  Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
template<class Lock, class Rep, class Period, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_for(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::duration<Rep, Period>& rel_time,
                Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);

Apply following changes to [thread.condvarany.intwait] Interruptible waits:

template<class Lock, class Predicate>
  bool wait_onuntil(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
[...]
template<class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_until(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time
                  Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);
[...]
template<class Lock, class Rep, class Period, class Predicate>
  bool wait_on_for(Lock& lock, stop_token stoken, const chrono::duration<Rep, Period>& rel_time,
                Predicate pred, stop_token stoken);

Update the value of the __cpp_lib_jthread in table "Standard library feature-test macros" of [support.limits.general] to reflect the date of approval of this proposal.

5. Acknowledgements

Special thanks and recognition goes to Sabre (http://www.sabre.com) for supporting the production of this proposal and author's participation in standardization committee.

6. References

  1. Richard Smith, "Working Draft, Standard for Programming Language C++" (N4830, https://wg21.link/n4830)