FAQ

What is TLDS?

TLDS provides a framework for developing transactional containers from lock-free ones. Lock-free algorithms guarantee that the system makes progress in a finite number of steps, regardless of the system scheduler or actions of other threads. It includes five examples of transactional data structures, lock-free and obstruction-free versions of a linked list, and a skip list, and a lock-free hash map. We are currently working on supporting transactional data structures for non-linked containers and also transactions that are executed on multiple containers.

Why use TLDS?

TLDS can be used to take advantage of the plethora of lock-free codes that have been hand-crafted for performance, but are incompatible with transactional execution. The result is an efficient lock-free data structure that can execute multiple data structure operations in a single atomic step without sacrificing correctness, while minimizing negative performance impacts.

Do I need lock-freedom?

If your data structure stopped executing at an arbitrary point and never resumed, what's the worst that would happen?

Are there examples?

Yes, five transactional data structures are included.

On what platforms does TLDS run?

TLDS has been tested on Ubuntu 14.04LTS with gcc-4.8.4. There are no known compatibility issues.

How stable is the TLDS feature set?

It has been tested, but not exhaustively.

Can I contribute to the TLDS code base?

Please see our contribution guidelines.

How do I contact the team?

You can send messages directly to pierrelaborde@knights.ucf.edu.

Where do I report bugs?

Please use the issue tracker on GitHub at https://github.com/ucf-cs/tlds/issues.