Re: Idle Function Not Getting Called

[Marshall Lake <mlake mlake net>]

> > The mutex locks/unlocks are only in a secondary thread and an idle
> > function.  I assume there's no problems with idle functions using
> > mutexes?

> There is no problem provided that any mutex acquired by the idle 
> function does not block (it immediately acquires), or if it does block 
> then it only does so transiently.  If the secondary thread undertakes a 
> lengthy operation holding a lock which the idle function may also want 
> to acquire, then there is a bottleneck in the code.  If at the same time 
> the secondary thread is waiting for the idle handler to complete, there 
> is a deadlock.

In my case the secondary thread adds the idle function and then waits (via 
GCond) for it to finish.  The idle function consists of a simple modal 
dialog.

> The important point in looking at out-of-order locking (or other locking 
> issues) is that the idle handler runs in the thread in which the main 
> program loop runs, not the thread which called g_idle_add()/ 
> g_idle_add_full(), and that it runs at a time not of that calling 
> thread's choosing.

I don't quite understand this.  Don't all idle functions run in the main 
program loop thread?

--
Marshall Lake -- mlake mlake net -- http://mlake.net