Preparatory Exercises — Philosophers Project

Welcome to the repository of practical exercises designed to build, step by step, all the concepts necessary to master the 42 Philosophers project. Here you will find progressive challenges about threads, mutexes, deadlocks, synchronization, semaphores, timing, and much more in C.

Objective

The purpose of this repository is to guide students through real concurrent programming learning, starting from the absolute basics up to the implementation of complete and robust systems capable of solving the classic Dining Philosophers problem, including the rules and challenges of the bonus part.

Exercise Structure

Each exercise follows a clear and standardized structure, including:

• Assignment name
• Expected files
• Allowed functions
• Problem description
• Hint/Suggestion for resolution

Exercise List

No	Name	Key Content
1	thread_basics	Threads, pthread_create, pthread_join
2	mutex_basics	Mutexes, race conditions
3	precise_timing	gettimeofday, usleep, timing
4	state_monitor	Monitoring, enums, monitor patterns
5	producer_consumer	Synchronization, coordination problems
6	deadlock_demo	Deadlock, deadlock prevention
7	limited_resources	Manual semaphore, limited access
8	simple_philosophers	Simplified philosophers problem
9	death_monitor	Life monitoring, watchdog threads
10	philosophers_args	Full implementation, arguments
11	race_detector	Data races, lock optimization
12	philosophers_bonus	Processes, POSIX semaphores, bonus part

How to Use

1. Each exercise is independent. It is recommended to follow them in order to ensure progressive learning.
2. Compile each exercise:

   gcc -Wall -Wextra -Werror -pthread <filename>.c -o <program>
   

3. Run each binary following the instructions and examples in the exercise header.

Technical Requirements

• C Compiler (e.g., gcc)
• POSIX environment (Linux or Mac OS X recommended)
• Standard pthreads libraries

Recommendations

• Don't use external functions beyond those allowed.
• Carefully read the hints provided for each exercise.
• Analyze race condition and deadlock errors using tools like valgrind --tool=helgrind.
• Consult The Little Book of Semaphores to solidify concepts.

Credits and References

• Inspired by the open-source book The Little Book of Semaphores by Allen B. Downey.
• Structure and evaluation based on the 42 project format.
• Classic Dining Philosophers problem by Edsger W. Dijkstra.