• Home
  • Line#
  • Scopes#
  • Navigate#
  • Raw
  • Download
1ThreadSanitizer
2===============
3
4Introduction
5------------
6
7ThreadSanitizer is a tool that detects data races.  It consists of a compiler
8instrumentation module and a run-time library.  Typical slowdown introduced by
9ThreadSanitizer is about **5x-15x**.  Typical memory overhead introduced by
10ThreadSanitizer is about **5x-10x**.
11
12How to build
13------------
14
15Build LLVM/Clang with `CMake <http://llvm.org/docs/CMake.html>`_.
16
17Supported Platforms
18-------------------
19
20ThreadSanitizer is supported on Linux x86_64 (tested on Ubuntu 12.04).
21Support for other 64-bit architectures is possible, contributions are welcome.
22Support for 32-bit platforms is problematic and is not planned.
23
24Usage
25-----
26
27Simply compile and link your program with ``-fsanitize=thread``.  To get a
28reasonable performance add ``-O1`` or higher.  Use ``-g`` to get file names
29and line numbers in the warning messages.
30
31Example:
32
33.. code-block:: console
34
35  % cat projects/compiler-rt/lib/tsan/lit_tests/tiny_race.c
36  #include <pthread.h>
37  int Global;
38  void *Thread1(void *x) {
39    Global = 42;
40    return x;
41  }
42  int main() {
43    pthread_t t;
44    pthread_create(&t, NULL, Thread1, NULL);
45    Global = 43;
46    pthread_join(t, NULL);
47    return Global;
48  }
49
50  $ clang -fsanitize=thread -g -O1 tiny_race.c
51
52If a bug is detected, the program will print an error message to stderr.
53Currently, ThreadSanitizer symbolizes its output using an external
54``addr2line`` process (this will be fixed in future).
55
56.. code-block:: bash
57
58  % ./a.out
59  WARNING: ThreadSanitizer: data race (pid=19219)
60    Write of size 4 at 0x7fcf47b21bc0 by thread T1:
61      #0 Thread1 tiny_race.c:4 (exe+0x00000000a360)
62
63    Previous write of size 4 at 0x7fcf47b21bc0 by main thread:
64      #0 main tiny_race.c:10 (exe+0x00000000a3b4)
65
66    Thread T1 (running) created at:
67      #0 pthread_create tsan_interceptors.cc:705 (exe+0x00000000c790)
68      #1 main tiny_race.c:9 (exe+0x00000000a3a4)
69
70``__has_feature(thread_sanitizer)``
71------------------------------------
72
73In some cases one may need to execute different code depending on whether
74ThreadSanitizer is enabled.
75:ref:`\_\_has\_feature <langext-__has_feature-__has_extension>` can be used for
76this purpose.
77
78.. code-block:: c
79
80    #if defined(__has_feature)
81    #  if __has_feature(thread_sanitizer)
82    // code that builds only under ThreadSanitizer
83    #  endif
84    #endif
85
86``__attribute__((no_sanitize_thread))``
87-----------------------------------------------
88
89Some code should not be instrumented by ThreadSanitizer.  One may use the
90function attribute `no_sanitize_thread` to disable instrumentation of plain
91(non-atomic) loads/stores in a particular function.  ThreadSanitizer still
92instruments such functions to avoid false positives and provide meaningful stack
93traces.  This attribute may not be supported by other compilers, so we suggest
94to use it together with ``__has_feature(thread_sanitizer)``.
95
96Blacklist
97---------
98
99ThreadSanitizer supports ``src`` and ``fun`` entity types in
100:doc:`SanitizerSpecialCaseList`, that can be used to suppress data race reports
101in the specified source files or functions. Unlike functions marked with
102`no_sanitize_thread` attribute, blacklisted functions are not instrumented at
103all. This can lead to false positives due to missed synchronization via atomic
104operations and missed stack frames in reports.
105
106Limitations
107-----------
108
109* ThreadSanitizer uses more real memory than a native run. At the default
110  settings the memory overhead is 5x plus 1Mb per each thread. Settings with 3x
111  (less accurate analysis) and 9x (more accurate analysis) overhead are also
112  available.
113* ThreadSanitizer maps (but does not reserve) a lot of virtual address space.
114  This means that tools like ``ulimit`` may not work as usually expected.
115* Libc/libstdc++ static linking is not supported.
116* Non-position-independent executables are not supported.  Therefore, the
117  ``fsanitize=thread`` flag will cause Clang to act as though the ``-fPIE``
118  flag had been supplied if compiling without ``-fPIC``, and as though the
119  ``-pie`` flag had been supplied if linking an executable.
120
121Current Status
122--------------
123
124ThreadSanitizer is in beta stage.  It is known to work on large C++ programs
125using pthreads, but we do not promise anything (yet).  C++11 threading is
126supported with llvm libc++.  The test suite is integrated into CMake build
127and can be run with ``make check-tsan`` command.
128
129We are actively working on enhancing the tool --- stay tuned.  Any help,
130especially in the form of minimized standalone tests is more than welcome.
131
132More Information
133----------------
134`<https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/ThreadSanitizerCppManual>`_
135