Circular buffer implementation with variable-sized items

Question

I need to code a shared buffer (1R thread/1W thread) in C to asynchronously dump binary program output to I/O. I normally use the classical circular buffer implementation when it comes to write a simple shared buffer, but in this case the size of each item on the buffer is variable and not-known at compile time. I was wondering what is a possible implementation of a circular buffer with variable-sized items.

Thanks.

valdo · Accepted Answer · 2011-08-16 14:47:25Z

4

You may think of it as a circular binary stream. That is, instead if adding an element you'll write the data, instead of popping it you'll read it.

answered Aug 16, 2011 at 14:47

valdo

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2 Comments

ziu Over a year ago

how would you track the size to read ? writing it directly in the write index ?

Jakub M. Over a year ago

you can write to the buffer a struct { int size_payload; char* payload}, after reading first int you know how much is the payload (variable-sized item)

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