POSIX Semaphores - The GNU C Library

Semaphores are counters for resources shared between threads. The basic operations on semaphores are: increment the counter atomically, and wait until the counter is non-null and decrement it atomically.

Semaphores have a maximum value past which they cannot be incremented. The macro SEM_VALUE_MAX is defined to be this maximum value. In the GNU C library, SEM_VALUE_MAX is equal to INT_MAX (see Range of Type), but it may be much smaller on other systems.

The pthreads library implements POSIX 1003.1b semaphores. These should not be confused with System V semaphores (ipc, semctl and semop).

— Function: int sem_init (sem_t *sem, int pshared, unsigned int value)

sem_init initializes the semaphore object pointed to by sem. The count associated with the semaphore is set initially to value. The pshared argument indicates whether the semaphore is local to the current process (pshared is zero) or is to be shared between several processes (pshared is not zero).
On success sem_init returns 0. On failure it returns -1 and sets errno to one of the following values:

EINVAL
value exceeds the maximal counter value SEM_VALUE_MAX
ENOSYS
pshared is not zero. LinuxThreads currently does not support process-shared semaphores. (This will eventually change.)

— Function: int sem_destroy (sem_t * sem)

sem_destroy destroys a semaphore object, freeing the resources it might hold. If any threads are waiting on the semaphore when sem_destroy is called, it fails and sets errno to EBUSY.
In the LinuxThreads implementation, no resources are associated with semaphore objects, thus sem_destroy actually does nothing except checking that no thread is waiting on the semaphore. This will change when process-shared semaphores are implemented.

— Function: int sem_wait (sem_t * sem)

sem_wait suspends the calling thread until the semaphore pointed to by sem has non-zero count. It then atomically decreases the semaphore count.
sem_wait is a cancellation point. It always returns 0.

— Function: int sem_trywait (sem_t * sem)

sem_trywait is a non-blocking variant of sem_wait. If the semaphore pointed to by sem has non-zero count, the count is atomically decreased and sem_trywait immediately returns 0. If the semaphore count is zero, sem_trywait immediately returns -1 and sets errno to EAGAIN.

— Function: int sem_post (sem_t * sem)

sem_post atomically increases the count of the semaphore pointed to by sem. This function never blocks.
On processors supporting atomic compare-and-swap (Intel 486, Pentium and later, Alpha, PowerPC, MIPS II, Motorola 68k, Ultrasparc), the sem_post function is can safely be called from signal handlers. This is the only thread synchronization function provided by POSIX threads that is async-signal safe. On the Intel 386 and earlier Sparc chips, the current LinuxThreads implementation of sem_post is not async-signal safe, because the hardware does not support the required atomic operations.
sem_post always succeeds and returns 0, unless the semaphore count would exceed SEM_VALUE_MAX after being incremented. In that case sem_post returns -1 and sets errno to EINVAL. The semaphore count is left unchanged.

34.7 POSIX Semaphores