Nim/doc/manual/threads.txt

Threads
=======

To enable thread support the ``--threads:on`` command line switch needs to
be used. The ``system`` module then contains several threading primitives.
See the `threads <threads.html>`_ and `channels <channels.html>`_ modules
for the low level thread API. There are also high level parallelism constructs
available. See `spawn`_ for further details.

Nim's memory model for threads is quite different than that of other common
programming languages (C, Pascal, Java): Each thread has its own (garbage
collected) heap and sharing of memory is restricted to global variables. This
helps to prevent race conditions. GC efficiency is improved quite a lot,
because the GC never has to stop other threads and see what they reference.
Memory allocation requires no lock at all! This design easily scales to massive
multicore processors that are becoming the norm.


Thread pragma
-------------

A proc that is executed as a new thread of execution should be marked by the
``thread`` pragma for reasons of readability. The compiler checks for
violations of the `no heap sharing restriction`:idx:\: This restriction implies
that it is invalid to construct a data structure that consists of memory
allocated from different (thread local) heaps.

A thread proc is passed to ``createThread`` or ``spawn`` and invoked
indirectly; so the ``thread`` pragma implies ``procvar``.


GC safety
---------

We call a proc ``p`` `GC safe`:idx: when it doesn't access any global variable
that contains GC'ed memory (``string``, ``seq``, ``ref`` or a closure) either
directly or indirectly through a call to a GC unsafe proc.

The `gcsafe`:idx: annotation can be used to mark a proc to be gcsafe,
otherwise this property is inferred by the compiler. Note that ``noSideEffect``
implies ``gcsafe``. The only way to create a thread is via ``spawn`` or
``createThead``. ``spawn`` is usually the preferable method. Either way
the invoked proc must not use ``var`` parameters nor must any of its parameters
contain a ``ref`` or ``closure`` type. This enforces
the *no heap sharing restriction*.

Routines that are imported from C are always assumed to be ``gcsafe``.
To disable the GC-safety checking the ``--threadAnalysis:off`` command line
switch can be used. This is a temporary workaround to ease the porting effort
from old code to the new threading model.


Future directions:

- A shared GC'ed heap might be provided.


Threadvar pragma
----------------

A global variable can be marked with the ``threadvar`` pragma; it is
a `thread-local`:idx: variable then:

.. code-block:: nim
  var checkpoints* {.threadvar.}: seq[string]

Due to implementation restrictions thread local variables cannot be
initialized within the ``var`` section. (Every thread local variable needs to
be replicated at thread creation.)


Threads and exceptions
----------------------

The interaction between threads and exceptions is simple: A *handled* exception
in one thread cannot affect any other thread. However, an *unhandled* exception
in one thread terminates the whole *process*!



Parallel & Spawn
================

Nim has two flavors of parallelism:
1) `Structured`:idx: parallelism via the ``parallel`` statement.
2) `Unstructured`:idx: parallelism via the standalone ``spawn`` statement.

Nim has a builtin thread pool that can be used for CPU intensive tasks. For
IO intensive tasks the ``async`` and ``await`` features should be
used instead. Both parallel and spawn need the `threadpool <threadpool.html>`_
module to work.

Somewhat confusingly, ``spawn`` is also used in the ``parallel`` statement
with slightly different semantics. ``spawn`` always takes a call expression of
the form ``f(a, ...)``. Let ``T`` be ``f``'s return type. If ``T`` is ``void``
then ``spawn``'s return type is also ``void`` otherwise it is ``FlowVar[T]``.

Within a ``parallel`` section sometimes the ``FlowVar[T]`` is eliminated
to ``T``. This happens when ``T`` does not contain any GC'ed memory.
The compiler can ensure the location in ``location = spawn f(...)`` is not
read prematurely within a ``parallel`` section and so there is no need for
the overhead of an indirection via ``FlowVar[T]`` to ensure correctness.

**Note**: Currently exceptions are not propagated between ``spawn``'ed tasks!


Spawn statement
---------------

`spawn`:idx: can be used to pass a task to the thread pool:

.. code-block:: nim
  import threadpool

  proc processLine(line: string) =
    discard "do some heavy lifting here"

  for x in lines("myinput.txt"):
    spawn processLine(x)
  sync()

For reasons of type safety and implementation simplicity the expression
that ``spawn`` takes is restricted:

* It must be a call expression ``f(a, ...)``.
* ``f`` must be ``gcsafe``.
* ``f`` must not have the calling convention ``closure``.
* ``f``'s parameters may not be of type ``var``.
  This means one has to use raw ``ptr``'s for data passing reminding the
  programmer to be careful.
* ``ref`` parameters are deeply copied which is a subtle semantic change and
  can cause performance problems but ensures memory safety. This deep copy
  is performed via ``system.deepCopy`` and so can be overriden.
* For *safe* data exchange between ``f`` and the caller a global ``TChannel``
  needs to be used. However, since spawn can return a result, often no further
  communication is required.


``spawn`` executes the passed expression on the thread pool and returns
a `data flow variable`:idx: ``FlowVar[T]`` that can be read from. The reading
with the ``^`` operator is **blocking**. However, one can use ``awaitAny`` to
wait on multiple flow variables at the same time:

.. code-block:: nim
  import threadpool, ...

  # wait until 2 out of 3 servers received the update:
  proc main =
    var responses = newSeq[FlowVarBase](3)
    for i in 0..2:
      responses[i] = spawn tellServer(Update, "key", "value")
    var index = awaitAny(responses)
    assert index >= 0
    responses.del(index)
    discard awaitAny(responses)

Data flow variables ensure that no data races
are possible. Due to technical limitations not every type ``T`` is possible in
a data flow variable: ``T`` has to be of the type ``ref``, ``string``, ``seq``
or of a type that doesn't contain a type that is garbage collected. This
restriction is not hard to work-around in practice.



Parallel statement
------------------

Example:

.. code-block:: nim
  # Compute PI in an inefficient way
  import strutils, math, threadpool

  proc term(k: float): float = 4 * math.pow(-1, k) / (2*k + 1)

  proc pi(n: int): float =
    var ch = newSeq[float](n+1)
    parallel:
      for k in 0..ch.high:
        ch[k] = spawn term(float(k))
    for k in 0..ch.high:
      result += ch[k]

  echo formatFloat(pi(5000))


The parallel statement is the preferred mechanism to introduce parallelism
in a Nim program. A subset of the Nim language is valid within a
``parallel`` section. This subset is checked to be free of data races at
compile time. A sophisticated `disjoint checker`:idx: ensures that no data
races are possible even though shared memory is extensively supported!

The subset is in fact the full language with the following
restrictions / changes:

* ``spawn`` within a ``parallel`` section has special semantics.
* Every location of the form ``a[i]`` and ``a[i..j]`` and ``dest`` where
  ``dest`` is part of the pattern ``dest = spawn f(...)`` has to be
  provably disjoint. This is called the *disjoint check*.
* Every other complex location ``loc`` that is used in a spawned
  proc (``spawn f(loc)``) has to be immutable for the duration of
  the ``parallel`` section. This is called the *immutability check*. Currently
  it is not specified what exactly "complex location" means. We need to make
  this an optimization!
* Every array access has to be provably within bounds. This is called
  the *bounds check*.
* Slices are optimized so that no copy is performed. This optimization is not
  yet performed for ordinary slices outside of a ``parallel`` section.