assignments/parallel-firewall: Clarify statement and support code

Clarify the CLI arguments accepted by the `firewall` binary.
Rephrase support code comment from `processes` -> `threads`.

Signed-off-by: Andrei Stan <[email protected]>

Author: andreistan26

content/assignments/parallel-firewall/README.md

@@ -32,7 +32,7 @@ The purpose of this assignment is to:
 
 The support code consists of the directories:
 
-- `src/` contains the skeleton for the parallelized firewall and the already implemented serial code.
+- `src/` contains the skeleton for the parallelized firewall and the already implemented serial code in `src/serial.c`.
   You will have to implement the missing parts marked as `TODO`
 
 - `utils/` contains utility files used for debugging and logging.
@@ -54,6 +54,8 @@ When there are new packets that need to be handled, the `consumer` threads must
 
 Implement the `consumer` related functions marked with `TODO` in the `src/consumer.c` file.
 
+**The number of consumer threads will be passed as a the 3rd command line argument**
+
 ### Ring Buffers
 
 A ring buffer (or a circular buffer) is a data structure that stores its elements in a circular fixed size array.
@@ -82,8 +84,11 @@ The output of the firewall will be a log file with the rows containing the firew
 The actual format can be found in the serial implementation (at `src/serial.c`).
 
 When processing the packets in parallel the threads will finish up the work in a non deterministic order.
+The packet processing functions are already implemented in `src/packet.c`
+
 We would like the logs to be sorted by the packet timestamp, the order that they came in from the producer.
 Thus, the `consumers` should insert the packet information to the log file such as the result is ordered by timestamp.
+The printing format can be found in `./src/serial.c`
 
 The logs must be written to the file in ascending order during packet processing.
 **Sorting the log file after the consumer threads have finished processing is not considered a valid synchronization mechanism and points will be deducted.**
@@ -138,6 +143,7 @@ When using `grade.sh` you will get a maximum of 90/100 points for general correc
 
 - Threads must yield the cpu when waiting for empty/full buffers i.e. not doing `busy waiting`.
 - The logs must be written as they are processed and not after the processing is done, in ascending order by the timestamp.
+- The number of running threads must be at least `num_consumer + 1`, where num_consumers is the 3rd command line argument to the `firewall` binary.
 
 ### Grades
 

content/assignments/parallel-firewall/src/firewall.c

@@ -68,7 +68,7 @@ int main(int argc, char **argv)
 	/* start publishing data */
 	publish_data(&ring_buffer, argv[1]);
 
-	/* TODO: wait for child processes to finish execution*/
+	/* TODO: wait for child threads to finish execution*/
 	(void) threads;
 
 	free(thread_ids);