Using ThreadPoolIO function with IO completion port

NTDEV
1

I am trying to do the following:

  1. From usermode , create a thread pool which waits for asynchronous operation(on a file) to complete.
  2. The threads will wait for async operation to complete using IO completion port.

However, When implementing the logic, I get a runtime error when calling CreateThreadPoolIO function. The function returns NULL and upon calling GetLastError() shows error code 87(which means parameter passed to it is incorrect).
I am not sure why it generates this error and I could not find an example on web which demonstrates what I have been trying to do. I am currently referring to MSDN documentation
to implement most of my code.

code:

VOID CALLBACK mycompletionRoutine(
    PTP_CALLBACK_INSTANCE pInstance, // See "Callback Termination Actions" section
    PVOID pvContext,
    PVOID pOverlapped,
    ULONG IoResult,
    ULONG_PTR NumberOfBytesTransferred,
    PTP_IO pIo)
{
    std::cout << "Completion routine is invoked" << std::endl;
}

int main()
{
    // Open handle to existing file in overlapped mode
    HANDLE hFile = CreateFile(L"C:\\test\\text.txt",                // name of the write
        GENERIC_READ,          // open for read
        0,                      // do not share
        NULL,                   // default security
        OPEN_EXISTING,             // ppen existing file only
        FILE_FLAG_OVERLAPPED,  // normal file
        NULL);                  // no attr. template

    if (hFile == INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE)
    {
        std::cout << "Invalid Handle value" << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }

    // Create a new completion port
    HANDLE Iocp = CreateIoCompletionPort(INVALID_HANDLE_VALUE,NULL,NULL,0);
    if (Iocp == NULL)
    {
        DWORD status = GetLastError();
        std::cout << "Iocp is NULL" << status<< std::endl;
        return -1;
    }

    // Associate completion port with file handle
    ULONG ckey = 2;
    HANDLE newIocp = CreateIoCompletionPort(hFile, Iocp, ckey, 0);
    if (newIocp != Iocp)
    {
        DWORD status = GetLastError();
        std::cout << "newIocp is NULL" << status << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }

    // Create a thread pool object and associate it with a file handle.
    PTP_IO thread_pool_obj =  CreateThreadpoolIo(hFile, mycompletionRoutine, NULL, NULL);
    if (thread_pool_obj == NULL)
    {
        DWORD status = GetLastError();
        std::cout << "**Thread pool obj is NULL**" << status << std::endl;
        return -1;
    }

    std::cout << "Program ran successfully" << std::endl;

    return 0;
}
2

I believe you EITHER call CreateIoCompletionPort, or you call CreateThreadpoolIo. My understanding is that CreateThreadpoolIo will create the completion port as part of its duties.

I may have misunderstood the docs, so I’ll delete this if challenged.

3

Maybe your theory is correct. When I delete either piece of code(CreateThreadpoolIo / CreateCompletion port), the program works successfully. But I still don’t understand how many threads will be created when I use CreateThreadpoolIo since there is no explicit parameter(similar to CreateCompletionPort) which allows you to specify the number of concurrent thread that will be created

4

correct on both. CreateThreadPoolIo is used on its own, not with a user IOCP (underneath the covers it has used an IOCP in the past, I don’t know the current implementation). You don’t control the number of threads, you let the thread pool manage it (hence, thread pool) and scale it as needed based on use.

5

You cannot use both the thread pool APIs and a completion port with the same HANDLE