/lock-free-ring-buffer

Primary LanguageCApache License 2.0Apache-2.0

What is it?

"Lock-Free Ring Buffer" (LFRB) is a minimal, customizable implementation of a ring buffer (a.k.a. circular buffer) in C, specifically suitable for embedded systems.


Lock-Free Restrictions

The ring buffer does not require any "locking" (mutual exclusion mechanism) as long as the following restrictions are met:

  1. Only one thread/interrupt can produce data into the ring buffer
  2. Only one thread/interrupt can consume data from the ring buffer

In other words, a given LFRB can be used only by one pair of producer/ consumer threads/interrupts. Fortunately, this is the most frequently encountered scenario.


Code Structure

The ring buffer implementation consists of two files located in the src directory:

  • ring_buf.h - contains the interface
  • ring_buf.c - contains the implementation

The ring buffer holds elements of they type RingBufElement, which can be customized (typically uint8_t, uint16_t, uint32_t, float, etc.)


Test/Example of Use

The directory test contains test/example of using the ring buffer. Specifically the file test_ring_buf.c tests the whole interface.


Licensing

LFRB is licensed under the MIT open source license.


Comments/Discussion

If you'd like to discuss LFRB or related subjects, plese use the "Issues" tab.


Contact Information

state-machine.com