Reentrant Function

Definition

A reentrant function is one that can be used by more than one task concurrently without fear of data corruption. Conversely, a non-reentrant function is one that cannot be shared by more than one task unless mutual exclusion to the function is ensured either by using a semaphore or by disabling interrupts during critical sections of code. A reentrant function can be interrupted at any time and resumed at a later time without loss of data. Reentrant functions either use local variables or protect their data when global variables are used.

A reentrant function:
1) Does not hold static data over successive calls
2) Does not return a pointer to static data; all data is provided by the caller of the function
3) Uses local data or ensures protection of global data by making a local copy of it
4) Must not call any non-reentrant functions

Floating Point Reentrant for Keil C51 C compiler

Floating point operations the compiler generates code for (+ - * /) are fully reentrant. But only a few functions in math.h are reentrant.

Those that are not reentrant must be protected from interrupts. One way this can be accomplished is to put a wrapper that disables and re-enables interrupts around the floating point math calls. For example:

#pragma disable        // Disable Interrupts for this function

float ISR_sin (float x)

{

    return (sin(x));

}

Examples

void func(int* x, int* y)

{

    int tmp;

    tmp=*x;

    *x=*y;

    *y=tmp;

}

the above is reentrant or not?
Reentrant

Non-Reentrant to Reentrant

Non-reentrant version

char* FileName(char *name)

{

    static char fname[13];

    sprintf(fname, "%s", name);       // can't write fname = name

    return fname;

}

Reentrant versions

char* FileName1(char *name, char *fname_buf)      // use thread's own buffer

{

    sprintf(fname_buf, "%s", name);          // can write fname_buf = name

    return fname_buf;

}

char* FileName2(char *name)

{

    char *fname_buf = (char*)malloc(13);       // malloc will allocate memory every call

    sprintf(fname_buf, "%s", name);       // can write fname_buf = name

    return fname_buf;

}

The first one better, because second requires free() to release memory, and takes longer time to allocate memory.