Assignning same char value on same location from multiple threads

[Jose Ortiz]

Each thread executes:
my_char_array[i] = 1;

my_char_array is shared. Char i is private to each thread. However, the value of i may be the same for two or more threads.

No reading is performed. Reading of my_char_array will be done after all threads are finished.

Should I worry and place a mutex lock?

In other words, would it a problem if two threads try to execute say

my_char_array[5]=1

would result in a value different than 1 being set.

[ashitpro]

Anytime a global resource is accessed by more than one thread the resource should have a Mutex associated with it.

http://www.yolinux.com/TUTORIALS/LinuxTutorialPosixThreads.html

[non mouse]

If they are all writing the same '1' to it, it should be fine. I am assuming it is an array of 'int's also. This is dodgy programming. If you are doing anything other than this, it is *extremely* dodgy programming.

[donbock]

Please elaborate on what you're trying to do. What is the meaning of the my_char_array? Do the threads ever write anything other than 1 into the array?

Do you intend to use my_char_array as a mutual-exclusion lock? There are reliable algorithms for implementing mutual-exclusion via shared memory without any OS-provided mutex support. See Dekker's algorithm, Peterson's algorithm, and Lamport's bakery algorithm. Notice that these algorithms are all versions of spinlocks.

By the way, it is imperative for all variables accessed by multiple threads to be declared as volatile.

[Jose Ortiz]

Thank you for your replies.

Array my_char_array[] is an array of char initialized to zeros. The only value to be set by the threads is 1. I do want to avoid using mutex variables.

I'm working on the LU factorization of large sparse matrices. Each thread works with a set of rows. While working a row, a thread tags only a subset of the columns. The issue is that multiple threads may tag the same column. When all threads are finished, I need to know which columns were tagged. Array my_char_array should tell me so.