CS Knowledge Base

template< class Lock, class Clock, class Duration >
std::cv_status
    wait_until( Lock& lock,
                const std::chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time );

template< class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate >
bool wait_until( Lock& lock,
                 const std::chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time,
                 Predicate pred );

template< class Lock, class Clock, class Duration, class Predicate >
bool wait_until( Lock& lock, std::stop_token stoken,
                 const std::chrono::time_point<Clock, Duration>& abs_time,
                 Predicate pred );

wait_until causes the current thread to block until the condition variable is notified, the given duration has been elapsed, or a spurious wakeup occurs. pred can be optionally provided to detect spurious wakeup.

Right after wait_until returns, lock is locked by the calling thread. If this postcondition cannot be satisfied^[1], calls std::terminate.

Parameters

Return value

Exceptions

Notes

The standard recommends that the clock tied to abs_time be used to measure time; that clock is not required to be a monotonic clock. There are no guarantees regarding the behavior of this function if the clock is adjusted discontinuously, but the existing implementations convert abs_time from Clock to std::chrono::system_clock and delegate to POSIX pthread_cond_timedwait so that the wait honors adjustments to the system clock, but not to the user-provided Clock. In any case, the function also may wait for longer than until after abs_time has been reached due to scheduling or resource contention delays.

Even if the clock in use is std::chrono::steady_clock or another monotonic clock, a system clock adjustment may induce a spurious wakeup.

The effects of notify_one()/notify_all() and each of the three atomic parts of wait()/wait_for()/wait_until() (unlock+wait, wakeup, and lock) take place in a single total order that can be viewed as modification order of an atomic variable: the order is specific to this individual condition variable. This makes it impossible for notify_one() to, for example, be delayed and unblock a thread that started waiting just after the call to notify_one() was made.

Example

#include <chrono>
#include <condition_variable>
#include <iostream>
#include <thread>

std::condition_variable_any cv;
std::mutex cv_m; // This mutex is used for three purposes:
                 // 1) to synchronize accesses to i
                 // 2) to synchronize accesses to std::cerr
                 // 3) for the condition variable cv
int i = 0;

void waits()
{
    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lk(cv_m);
    std::cerr << "Waiting... \n";
    cv.wait(lk, []{ return i == 1; });
    std::cerr << "...finished waiting. i == 1\n";
}

void signals()
{
    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));
    {
        std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(cv_m);
        std::cerr << "Notifying...\n";
    }
    cv.notify_all();

    std::this_thread::sleep_for(std::chrono::seconds(1));

    {
        std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lk(cv_m);
        i = 1;
        std::cerr << "Notifying again...\n";
    }
    cv.notify_all();
}

int main()
{
    std::thread t1(waits), t2(waits), t3(waits), t4(signals);
    t1.join(); 
    t2.join(); 
    t3.join();
    t4.join();
}

Waiting...
Waiting...
Waiting...
Notifying...
Notifying again...
...finished waiting. i == 1
...finished waiting. i == 1
...finished waiting. i == 1

Defect reports

The following behavior-changing defect reports were applied retroactively to previously published C++ standards.

See also