数据竞争和竞争条件

安全的 Rust 代码保证没有数据竞争,数据竞争的定义如下:

  • 两个或多个线程同时访问同一内存位置
  • 其中至少有一个是写操作
  • 其中至少有一个是非同步的

数据竞争会导致未定义行为,因此在安全的 Rust 代码中是不可能发生的。数据竞争主要通过 Rust 的所有权系统来防止:不可能对可变引用创建别名,因此不可能发生数据竞争。内部可变性使得情况更加复杂,这也是我们拥有 Send 和 Sync 特征的主要原因(有关这方面的更多信息,请参见下一节)。

然而,Rust 并不能防止一般的竞争条件。

在不控制调度程序的情况下,这在数学上是不可能的,而这在正常的操作系统环境中是事实。如果确实控制了抢占,则可以防止一般的竞争 - RTIC 等框架就使用了这种技术。但是,实际控制调度程序的情况非常少见。

因此,Rust 在同步不正确的情况下发生死锁或出现异常行为被认为是“安全的”:这被称为一般的竞争条件或资源竞争。显然,这样的程序不是很好,但 Rust 当然不能防止所有逻辑错误。

无论如何,竞争条件本身不会违反 Rust 程序中的内存安全。只有与其他一些不安全的代码结合使用时,竞争条件才会真正违反内存安全。例如,一个正确的程序如下所示

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::thread;
use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
use std::sync::Arc;

let data = vec![1, 2, 3, 4];
// Arc so that the memory the AtomicUsize is stored in still exists for
// the other thread to increment, even if we completely finish executing
// before it. Rust won't compile the program without it, because of the
// lifetime requirements of thread::spawn!
let idx = Arc::new(AtomicUsize::new(0));
let other_idx = idx.clone();

// `move` captures other_idx by-value, moving it into this thread
thread::spawn(move || {
    // It's ok to mutate idx because this value
    // is an atomic, so it can't cause a Data Race.
    other_idx.fetch_add(10, Ordering::SeqCst);
});

// Index with the value loaded from the atomic. This is safe because we
// read the atomic memory only once, and then pass a copy of that value
// to the Vec's indexing implementation. This indexing will be correctly
// bounds checked, and there's no chance of the value getting changed
// in the middle. However our program may panic if the thread we spawned
// managed to increment before this ran. A race condition because correct
// program execution (panicking is rarely correct) depends on order of
// thread execution.
println!("{}", data[idx.load(Ordering::SeqCst)]);
}

如果我们事先进行边界检查,然后使用未经检查的值不安全地访问数据,就会导致数据竞争

#![allow(unused)]
fn main() {
use std::thread;
use std::sync::atomic::{AtomicUsize, Ordering};
use std::sync::Arc;

let data = vec![1, 2, 3, 4];

let idx = Arc::new(AtomicUsize::new(0));
let other_idx = idx.clone();

// `move` captures other_idx by-value, moving it into this thread
thread::spawn(move || {
    // It's ok to mutate idx because this value
    // is an atomic, so it can't cause a Data Race.
    other_idx.fetch_add(10, Ordering::SeqCst);
});

if idx.load(Ordering::SeqCst) < data.len() {
    unsafe {
        // Incorrectly loading the idx after we did the bounds check.
        // It could have changed. This is a race condition, *and dangerous*
        // because we decided to do `get_unchecked`, which is `unsafe`.
        println!("{}", data.get_unchecked(idx.load(Ordering::SeqCst)));
    }
}
}