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

  • swipl
    • library
      • error.pl
      • debug.pl
      • apply.pl -- Apply predicates on a list
      • lists.pl -- List Manipulation
      • broadcast.pl -- Event service
      • shlib.pl -- Utility library for loading foreign objects (DLLs, shared objects)
      • option.pl
      • thread_pool.pl
      • gensym.pl -- Generate unique symbols
      • settings.pl -- Setting management
      • arithmetic.pl
      • main.pl
      • 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
      • apply_macros.pl -- Goal expansion rules to avoid meta-calling
      • yall.pl
      • assoc.pl -- Binary associations
      • prolog_format.pl -- Analyse format specifications
      • pure_input.pl -- Pure Input from files and streams
      • solution_sequences.pl
      • 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
      • 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
      • prolog_xref.pl
      • 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
      • prolog_versions.pl -- Demand specific (Prolog) versions
      • prolog_wrap.pl -- Wrapping predicates
      • dialect.pl
      • date.pl -- Process dates and times
      • persistency.pl
      • iostream.pl -- Utilities to deal with streams
      • prolog_code.pl -- Utilities for reasoning about code
      • strings.pl
      • dif.pl
      • edinburgh.pl
      • terms.pl
      • 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
      • wfs.pl
      • 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
      • base32.pl -- Base32 encoding and decoding
      • codesio.pl -- I/O on Lists of Character Codes
      • coinduction.pl
      • heaps.pl -- heaps/priority queues
      • statistics.pl -- Get information about resource usage
      • when.pl -- Conditional coroutining
      • listing.pl -- List programs and pretty print clauses
      • ctypes.pl -- Character code classification
      • vm.pl
      • 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
      • prolog_profile.pl
      • prolog_coverage.pl
      • tables.pl -- XSB interface to tables
      • tableutil.pl -- Table inspection and statistics utilities
      • shell.pl
      • help.pl -- Text based manual
      • prolog_history.pl
      • increval.pl -- Incremental dynamic predicate modification
      • prolog_metainference.pl -- Infer meta-predicate properties
      • prolog_trace.pl -- Print access to predicates
      • prolog_debug.pl
      • prolog_codewalk.pl
      • prolog_jiti.pl
      • check_installation.pl -- Check installation issues and features
      • exceptions.pl
      • nb_rbtrees.pl -- Non-backtrackable operations on red black trees
      • rwlocks.pl
      • optparse.pl -- command line parsing
      • prolog_autoload.pl
      • check.pl
      • make.pl
      • intercept.pl -- Intercept and signal interface
      • edit.pl
      • nb_set.pl -- Non-backtrackable sets
      • readln.pl
      • qsave.pl
      • zip.pl -- Access resource ZIP archives
      • explain.pl
      • fastrw.pl
      • system.pl -- System utilities
      • writef.pl
      • macros.pl
      • streams.pl -- Manage Prolog streams
      • portray_text.pl -- Portray text
      • oset.pl
      • hashtable.pl
      • prolog_deps.pl
      • qpforeign.pl
      • files.pl
      • tty.pl
      • prolog_config.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.