How to make C (P/invoke) code called from C# “Thread-safe”

Question

I have some simple C-code which uses a single global-variable. Obviously this is not thread-safe, so when I call it from multiple threads in C# using P/invoke, things screw up.

Answer 1

A common pattern is to have

• a function that allocates memory for the state,
• a function that has no side-effects but mutating the passed-in state, and
• a function that releases the memoy for the state.

The C# side would look like this:

Usage:

var state = new ThreadLocal(NativeMethods.CreateSomeState);

Parallel.For(0, 100, i =>
{
    var result = NativeMethods.SomeFunction(state.Value, i, 42);

    Console.WriteLine(result);
});

Declarations:

internal static class NativeMethods
{
    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    public static extern SomeSafeHandle CreateSomeState();

    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    public static extern int SomeFunction(SomeSafeHandle handle,
                                          int parameter1,
                                          int parameter2);

    [DllImport("MyDll.dll", CallingConvention = CallingConvention.Cdecl)]
    internal static extern int FreeSomeState(IntPtr handle);
}

SafeHandle magic:

[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.InheritanceDemand, UnmanagedCode = true)]
[SecurityPermission(SecurityAction.Demand, UnmanagedCode = true)]
internal class SomeSafeHandle : SafeHandle
{
    [ReliabilityContract(Consistency.WillNotCorruptState, Cer.MayFail)]
    public SomeSafeHandle()
        : base(IntPtr.Zero, true)
    {
    }

    public override bool IsInvalid
    {
        get { return this.handle == IntPtr.Zero; }
    }

    [ReliabilityContract(Consistency.WillNotCorruptState, Cer.MayFail)]
    protected override bool ReleaseHandle()
    {
        return NativeMethods.FreeSomeState(this.handle) == 0;
    }
}