GThread

Multi-threading module for Garry's Mod servers.

This module allows you to run code in separate threads and communicate with them using data channels.

Installation

The installation is fairly straight forward:

1. Place the module (.dll) in garrysmod/lua/bin/ (create the folder bin if it doesn't exist)
2. Copy lua/includes/modules/threading.lua into the same folder in garrysmod/

There is no extra dependency so this should be all you need. Make sure to use the right DLL for your OS.

Example

require "threading"

local thread = threading.newThread()

local datachannel = thread:OpenChannel( "data" )

datachannel:Receive( function( bytes, tag )
	print( "result: " .. datachannel:ReadDouble() )
end )

thread:Run( function() -- You can either pass a string or a function with no upvalues
	local datachannel = engine:OpenChannel( "data" )

	while true do
		local bytes, tag = datachannel:Wait()
		if not bytes then return end

		local a = datachannel:ReadDouble()
		local b = datachannel:ReadDouble()

		engine:Sleep( 1000 ) -- Do some expensive work, this is entirely separate

		datachannel:StartPacket()
		datachannel:WriteDouble( a + b )
		datachannel:PushPacket()
	end
end )

datachannel:StartPacket()
datachannel:WriteDouble( 45 )
datachannel:WriteDouble( 81 )
datachannel:PushPacket()

local packet = threading.newPacket()
packet:WriteDouble( 11 )
packet:WriteDouble( 54 )
datachannel:PushPacket( packet )
datachannel:PushPacket( packet )
datachannel:PushPacket( packet )

Building

If you wish to build the module yourself, the build files are included in this repo.

Windows

To build for Windows you'll need Visual Studio and premake5.exe

1. Drop premake5.exe next to BuildProjects.bat
2. Run BuildProjects.bat
3. Open the VS solution from projects/windows/ and build
4. Output is build/gmsv_gthread_win32.dll

Linux

1. Get premake5 and place it next to BuildProjects.bat
2. Run premake5 --os=linux gmake2
3. CD into projects/linux/
4. make optionally with config=(debug|release)
5. Output is build/gmsv_gthread_linux.dll (the makefile renames the created .so to the GMod module format)