CODEWITHSUNDEEP
c#processsynchronization
GuyWithDogs
GuyWithDogs

Reputation: 683

Synchronize multiple processes to begin working at the same time?

I'm working in .NET 4 in C#. I have LauncherProgram.exe that will create multiple instances of WorkerProgram.exe, have them do some work on the arguments supplied when the process is created, and then LauncherProgram.exe will launch a new set of WorkerProgram.exe instances to do some different work.

Each WorkerProgram.exe is launched with some parameters that tell it what to work on, and there can be one or more WorkerProgram.exe launched at the same time. The WorkerProgram.exe reads the supplied parameters, performs some initialization, and then is ready to do the work.

What I'm trying to figure out is how to make each set of WorkerProgram.exe launched at the same time "tell" or "signal" or "I can't figure out the proper term" the LauncherProgram.exe that EACH process has completed the initialization step and is ready to begin. I want to synchronize the start of the "do your work" in the WorkerProgram.exe instances launched in a set.

I'm setting up my LauncherProgram.exe to work something like this (ignoring types for now):

while (there are sets of work to do)
{
  for each set of work
  {
    for each group data in set
      create and launch a WorkerProgram.exe for a single set of data
    wait for all created WorkerProgram.exe to indicate init is complete
    send signal to start processing 
  }
}

I actually have a small test program where I use named events to signal multiple spawned processes to START something at the same time.

(Hopefully all the above makes sense)

I just can't figure out the "wait for N processes to tell me their initialization is ready" bit.

I've searched for "process synchronization" and "rendezvous" and looked at using named events and named semaphores. I can find a bunch of things about threads, but less about separate processes.

LauncherProgram.exe creates the WorkerProgram.exe processes using the System.Diagnostics.Process class, if that helps.

If you can give me better terms to help narrow my search, or point me to a design pattern or mechanism, or a library or class that helps, I'd be very appreciative.

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1026

Answers (2)

Kevin Pilch
Kevin Pilch

Reputation: 11605

You can use the System.Threading.Mutex class for interprocess communication. See http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/system.threading.mutex(v=vs.110).aspx. It is probably easiest to name each Mutex, giving the process id of WorkerProgram.exe or some other distinguishing characteristic as the name.

Upvotes: 1

Jesus Ramos
Jesus Ramos

Reputation: 23268

You can use some interprocess communication but the simple way to do it is to write to temp files for instance writing DONE to some file and having Launcher read periodically until all WorkerProgram write DONE to their respective files, etc... or even create a FileMapping in windows to share memory between processes with file backings.

Other ways to do it include remote procedure calls, sockets, and simple file mappings.

Upvotes: 0

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