Understanding and Implementing Semaphores for Concurrent Programming

Using Semaphores to Control Concurrency in Producer-Consumer Systems

In the world of concurrent programming, managing shared resources and coordinating between multiple threads or processes is a critical challenge. Among the various synchronization primitives available, semaphores stand out as a versatile and powerful tool. In this deep dive, we’ll explore semaphores, their implementation, and practical applications in C programming.

Credits: Dev Community (https://tinyurl.com/mu8wea5v)

What are Semaphores?

Semaphores are synchronization primitives that control access to shared resources in concurrent programming environments.

Conceptually, a semaphore is an unsigned integer with special properties:

1. Atomic Operations: Changes to the semaphore’s value are atomic, meaning they cannot be interrupted by other threads or processes.
2. Restricted Access: The semaphore’s value can only be modified through two specific operations: wait and post (sometimes called signal).

Semaphore Operations

1. Wait Operation:

• Attempts to decrement the semaphore’s value.
• If the value is greater than 0, it…