/usr/lib/swipl/library/thread.pl
All Application Manual Name SummaryHelp

  • swipl
    • library
      • error.pl
      • debug.pl -- Print debug messages and test assertions
      • apply.pl -- Apply predicates on a list
      • lists.pl
      • broadcast.pl -- Event service
      • shlib.pl -- Utility library for loading foreign objects (DLLs, shared objects)
      • option.pl -- Option list processing
      • thread_pool.pl -- Resource bounded thread management
      • gensym.pl -- Generate unique symbols
      • settings.pl -- Setting management
      • arithmetic.pl -- Extensible arithmetic
      • main.pl -- Provide entry point for scripts
      • readutil.pl -- Read utilities
      • operators.pl -- Manage operators
      • pairs.pl -- Operations on key-value lists
      • prolog_source.pl -- Examine Prolog source-files
      • record.pl -- Access compound arguments by name
      • quasi_quotations.pl -- Define Quasi Quotation syntax
      • sandbox.pl -- Sandboxed Prolog code
      • apply_macros.pl -- Goal expansion rules to avoid meta-calling
      • yall.pl -- Lambda expressions
      • assoc.pl -- Binary associations
      • prolog_format.pl -- Analyse format specifications
      • pure_input.pl -- Pure Input from files and streams
      • solution_sequences.pl -- Modify solution sequences
      • ordsets.pl -- Ordered set manipulation
      • random.pl -- Random numbers
      • base64.pl -- Base64 encoding and decoding
      • aggregate.pl -- Aggregation operators on backtrackable predicates
      • predicate_options.pl -- Access and analyse predicate options
      • csv.pl -- Process CSV (Comma-Separated Values) data
      • pprint.pl -- Pretty Print Prolog terms
      • atom.pl -- Operations on atoms
      • modules.pl -- Module utility predicates
      • occurs.pl -- Finding and counting sub-terms
      • prolog_xref.pl -- Prolog cross-referencer data collection
      • prolog_colour.pl -- Prolog syntax colouring support.
      • lazy_lists.pl -- Lazy list handling
      • ugraphs.pl
      • url.pl -- Analysing and constructing URL
      • www_browser.pl -- Open a URL in the users browser
      • prolog_pack.pl -- A package manager for Prolog
      • git.pl -- Run GIT commands
      • utf8.pl -- UTF-8 encoding/decoding on lists of character codes.
      • quintus.pl -- Quintus compatibility
      • prolog_versions.pl -- Demand specific (Prolog) versions
      • prolog_wrap.pl -- Wrapping predicates
      • dialect.pl
      • date.pl -- Process dates and times
      • persistency.pl -- Provide persistent dynamic predicates
      • iostream.pl -- Utilities to deal with streams
      • prolog_code.pl -- Utilities for reasoning about code
      • strings.pl -- String utilities
      • dif.pl -- The dif/2 constraint
      • edinburgh.pl -- Some traditional Edinburgh predicates
      • terms.pl -- Term manipulation
      • ansi_term.pl -- Print decorated text to ANSI consoles
      • threadutil.pl -- Interactive thread utilities
      • prolog_stack.pl -- Examine the Prolog stack
      • prolog_clause.pl
      • prolog_breakpoints.pl -- Manage Prolog break-points
      • wfs.pl -- Well Founded Semantics interface
      • sort.pl
      • dicts.pl -- Dict utilities
      • varnumbers.pl -- Utilities for numbered terms
      • rbtrees.pl -- Red black trees
      • backcomp.pl -- Backward compatibility
      • charsio.pl -- I/O on Lists of Character Codes
      • macros.pl -- Macro expansion
      • intercept.pl -- Intercept and signal interface
      • statistics.pl -- Get information about resource usage
      • base32.pl -- Base32 encoding and decoding
      • codesio.pl -- I/O on Lists of Character Codes
      • coinduction.pl -- Co-Logic Programming
      • heaps.pl -- heaps/priority queues
      • when.pl -- Conditional coroutining
      • ctypes.pl -- Character code classification
      • thread.pl -- High level thread primitives
        • concurrent/3
        • concurrent_forall/2
        • concurrent_forall/3
        • concurrent_and/2
        • concurrent_and/3
        • concurrent_maplist/2
        • concurrent_maplist/3
        • concurrent_maplist/4
        • first_solution/3
        • call_in_thread/2
        • call_in_thread/3
      • check.pl -- Consistency checking
      • tables.pl -- XSB interface to tables
      • listing.pl -- List programs and pretty print clauses
      • hashtable.pl -- Hash tables
      • prolog_trace.pl -- Print access to predicates
      • make.pl -- Reload modified source files
      • portray_text.pl -- Portray text
      • check_installation.pl -- Check installation issues and features
      • streams.pl -- Manage Prolog streams
      • system.pl
      • prolog_deps.pl
      • exceptions.pl -- Exception classification
      • nb_set.pl -- Non-backtrackable sets
      • qpforeign.pl -- Quintus compatible foreign loader
      • oset.pl
      • shell.pl -- Elementary shell commands
      • optparse.pl -- command line parsing
      • writef.pl
      • prolog_coverage.pl
      • prolog_debug.pl -- User level debugging tools
      • increval.pl -- Incremental dynamic predicate modification
      • prolog_codewalk.pl -- Prolog code walker
      • edit.pl
      • prolog_metainference.pl -- Infer meta-predicate properties
      • fastrw.pl -- Fast reading and writing of terms
      • prolog_autoload.pl
      • prolog_jiti.pl
      • tty.pl
      • explain.pl -- Describe Prolog Terms
      • prolog_history.pl -- Per-directory persistent commandline history
      • qsave.pl
      • prolog_profile.pl -- Execution profiler
      • zip.pl -- Access resource ZIP archives
      • vm.pl -- SWI-Prolog Virtual Machine utilities
      • files.pl
      • nb_rbtrees.pl
      • rwlocks.pl -- Read/write locks
      • help.pl -- Text based manual
      • readln.pl
 concurrent(+N, :Goals, +Options) is semidet
Run Goals in parallel using N threads. This call blocks until all work has been done. The Goals must be independent. They should not communicate using shared variables or any form of global data. All Goals must be thread-safe.

Execution succeeds if all goals have succeeded. If one goal fails or throws an exception, other workers are abandoned as soon as possible and the entire computation fails or re-throws the exception. Note that if multiple goals fail or raise an error it is not defined which error or failure is reported.

On successful completion, variable bindings are returned. Note however that threads have independent stacks and therefore the goal is copied to the worker thread and the result is copied back to the caller of concurrent/3.

Choosing the right number of threads is not always obvious. Here are some scenarios:

  • If the goals are CPU intensive and normally all succeeding, typically the number of CPUs is the optimal number of threads. Less does not use all CPUs, more wastes time in context switches and also uses more memory.
  • If the tasks are I/O bound the number of threads is typically higher than the number of CPUs.
  • If one or more of the goals may fail or produce an error, using a higher number of threads may find this earlier.
Arguments:
N- Number of worker-threads to create. Using 1, no threads are created. If N is larger than the number of Goals we create exactly as many threads as there are Goals.
Goals- List of callable terms.
Options- Passed to thread_create/3 for creating the workers. Only options changing the stack-sizes can be used. In particular, do not pass the detached or alias options.
See also
- In many cases, concurrent_maplist/2 and friends is easier to program and is tractable to program analysis.