Channels
Rust provides asynchronous channels
for communication between threads. Channels allow a unidirectional flow of information between two end-points: the Sender
and the Receiver
.
use std::sync::mpsc::{Sender, Receiver};
use std::sync::mpsc;
use std::thread;
static NTHREADS: i32 = 3;
fn main() {
// Channels have two endpoints: the `Sender<T>` and the `Receiver<T>`,
// where `T` is the type of the message to be transferred
// (type annotation is superfluous)
let (tx, rx): (Sender<i32>, Receiver<i32>) = mpsc::channel();
let mut children = Vec::new();
for id in 0..NTHREADS {
// The sender endpoint can be copied
let thread_tx = tx.clone();
// Each thread will send its id via the channel
let child = thread::spawn(move || {
// The thread takes ownership over `thread_tx`
// Each thread queues a message in the channel
thread_tx.send(id).unwrap();
// Sending is a non-blocking operation, the thread will continue
// immediately after sending its message
println!("thread {} finished", id);
});
children.push(child);
}
// Here, all the messages are collected
let mut ids = Vec::with_capacity(NTHREADS as usize);
for _ in 0..NTHREADS {
// The `recv` method picks a message from the channel
// `recv` will block the current thread if there are no messages available
ids.push(rx.recv());
}
// Wait for the threads to complete any remaining work
for child in children {
child.join().expect("oops! the child thread panicked");
}
// Show the order in which the messages were sent
println!("{:?}", ids);
}