malloc.c error when using a struct and multiple threads

Question

I am getting an error which I have no idea how to fix. I am trying to work through the "producer-consumer" problem using spin-lock. I created a "Queue"-like data structure as a shared resource to put "produced" items in, and to remove items to be "consumed". This is what my main program looks like:

#include <pthread.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <time.h>
#include "Queue.h"

#define DEBUG 1

Queue_t* global_queue; // create a global queue

/* thread procedure for the producer thread */
void* producer_func(void* arg)
{
   while(1) // loops infinitely
   {
      int datum = rand() % global_queue->maximum_count;

      // spin while the queue is full
      while ((global_queue->current_count) ==
         (global_queue->maximum_count));

      enqueue(global_queue, datum);
      display(global_queue);
   }
}


/* thread procedure for the consumer thread */
void* consumer_func(void* arg)
{
   while(1) // loops infinitely
   {
      int datum = 0;

      // spin while there are no items in the queue
      while(global_queue->current_count == 0);

      datum = dequeue(global_queue);
      printf("The number consumed is %d\n");
   }
}


/* Main */
int main(int argc, char** argv)
{
   if(argc != 2)
   {
      printf("Error: wrong number of command-line arguments\n");
      printf("Usage: %s <integer>\n", argv[0]);
      exit(1);
   }

   pthread_t producer;  // create producer thread
   pthread_t consumer;  // create consumer thread

   // create the queue object, get the max queue size
   //int max_count = atoi(argv[1]);
   global_queue = construct(10);
   display(global_queue);

   // intialize the random seed generator
   srand((unsigned)time(NULL));

   // create the threads and have them execute their routines
   pthread_create(&producer, NULL, &producer_func, NULL);
   pthread_create(&consumer, NULL, &consumer_func, NULL);

   // join the threads to finish
   pthread_join(producer, NULL);
   pthread_join(consumer, NULL);

   // deallocate the queue from memory
   //destruct(global_queue);

   return 0;
}

However, when I call the pthread_create in main routine, I get a bizarre error in malloc.c:

queue_demo: malloc.c:3096: sYSMALLOc: Assertion `(old_top == (((mbinptr) (((char *) &((av)->bins[((1) - 1) * 2])) - __builtin_offsetof (struct malloc_chunk, fd)))) && old_size == 0) || ((unsigned long) (old_size) >= (unsigned long)((((__builtin_offsetof (struct malloc_chunk, fd_nextsize))+((2 * (sizeof(size_t))) - 1)) & ~((2 * (sizeof(size_t))) - 1))) && ((old_top)->size & 0x1) && ((unsigned long)old_end & pagemask) == 0)' failed.
Aborted

Here is my "Queue" data structure header file:

#ifndef QUEUE_H
#define QUEUE_H

typedef struct Queue
{
   int  current_count;
   int  maximum_count;
   int  buffer[];       // queue uses an array
} Queue_t;


// routines to implement Queue-like functionality (FIFO)
// TODO: somehow encapsulate all these features in the struct itself.
//
Queue_t* construct(int buff_size);
void     destruct (Queue_t* queue);
void     display  (Queue_t* queue);
int      dequeue  (Queue_t* queue);
void     enqueue  (Queue_t* queue, const int datum);

#endif

And implementation:

#include <assert.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include "Queue.h"

Queue_t* construct(int buff_size)
{
   Queue_t* queue = malloc(sizeof(Queue_t));

   assert(queue != NULL);
   queue->maximum_count = buff_size;
   queue->current_count = 0;

   int i = 0;

   for(; i < queue->maximum_count; ++i)
      queue->buffer[i] = 0;

   return queue;
}

void destruct(Queue_t* queue)
{
   assert(queue != NULL);
   free(queue);
   printf("Queue destroyed!\n");
}

void display(Queue_t* queue)
{
   int i = 0;

   for(; i < queue->maximum_count; ++i)
      printf("%d ", queue->buffer[i]);
   printf("\n");
}

void enqueue(Queue_t* queue, const int datum)
{
   assert(queue->current_count < queue->maximum_count);
   queue->buffer[queue->current_count] = datum;
   ++queue->current_count;
}


int dequeue(Queue_t* queue)
{
   int i = 1;
   int datum = queue->buffer[0];

   assert(queue->current_count > 0);

   for(; i < queue->maximum_count; ++i)
   {
      queue->buffer[i-1] = queue->buffer[i];
      queue->buffer[i] = 0;
   }

   --queue->current_count;

   return datum;
}

Clearly, I am doing something very wrong. But I have no idea what exactly that is. I suspect it may have something to do with declaring the struct globally, but I am not sure. Any ideas would be greatly appreciated.

Answer 1

Your construct() is not allocating space for the queue item data.

Queue_t* construct(int buff_size)
{
   Queue_t* queue = malloc(sizeof(Queue_t));

   assert(queue != NULL);
   queue->maximum_count = buff_size;
   queue->current_count = 0;

   int i = 0;

   // HERE. Where is the item data space allocation ??
   for(; i < queue->maximum_count; ++i)
      queue->buffer[i] = 0;

   return queue;
}

Try this instead:

Queue_t* construct(int buff_size)
{
   // note space allocation for buffer[] bytes as well as overall structure.
   Queue_t* queue = malloc(sizeof(Queue_t) + sizeof(int) * buff_size);

   assert(queue != NULL);
   queue->maximum_count = buff_size;
   queue->current_count = 0;
   memset(queue->buffer, 0, sizeof(int)*buff_size);
   return queue;
}

I've not reviewed the rest of your code to determine if you're properly protecting concurrent access to the queue (that pthread mention makes me suspect you should be adding, and initializing, a pthread_mutex_t to the members of your Queue_t type, and using it for guarding concurrent queue modification). Regardless, the above is most-definitely a problem and should be taken care of first.