C++11 thread-safe queue

Question

A project I'm working on uses multiple threads to do work on a collection of files. Each thread can add files to the list of files to be processed, so I put together (what I thought was) a thread-safe queue. Relevant portions follow:

// qMutex is a std::mutex intended to guard the queue
// populatedNotifier is a std::condition_variable intended to
//                   notify waiting threads of a new item in the queue

void FileQueue::enqueue(std::string&& filename)
{
    std::lock_guard<std::mutex> lock(qMutex);
    q.push(std::move(filename));

    // Notify anyone waiting for additional files that more have arrived
    populatedNotifier.notify_one();
}

std::string FileQueue::dequeue(const std::chrono::milliseconds& timeout)
{
    std::unique_lock<std::mutex> lock(qMutex);
    if (q.empty()) {
        if (populatedNotifier.wait_for(lock, timeout) == std::cv_status::no_timeout) {
            std::string ret = q.front();
            q.pop();
            return ret;
        }
        else {
            return std::string();
        }
    }
    else {
        std::string ret = q.front();
        q.pop();
        return ret;
    }
}

However, I am occasionally segfaulting inside the if (...wait_for(lock, timeout) == std::cv_status::no_timeout) { } block, and inspection in gdb indicates that the segfaults are occurring because the queue is empty. How is this possible? It was my understanding that wait_for only returns cv_status::no_timeout when it has been notified, and this should only happen after FileQueue::enqueue has just pushed a new item to the queue.

Answer 1

According to the standard condition_variables are allowed to wakeup spuriously, even if the event hasn't occured. In case of a spurious wakeup it will return cv_status::no_timeout (since it woke up instead of timing out), even though it hasn't been notified. The correct solution for this is of course to check if the wakeup was actually legit before proceding.

The details are specified in the standard §30.5.1 [thread.condition.condvar]:

—The function will unblock when signaled by a call to notify_one(), a call to notify_all(), expiration of the absolute timeout (30.2.4) specified by abs_time, or spuriously.

...

Returns: cv_status::timeout if the absolute timeout (30.2.4) specifiedby abs_time expired, other-ise cv_status::no_timeout.