What is PFAC?

PFAC is an open library for exact string matching performed on GPUs. PFAC runs on processors that support CUDA. Supporting OS includes ubuntu, Fedora and MAC OS.

PFAC library provides C-style API and users need not have background on GPU computing or parallel computing. PFAC has APIs hiding CUDA stuff.

News

PFAC r1.0 updated 2011/02/23
PFAC r1.0 released 2011/02/21
PFAC r1.1 released 2011/04/27
PFAC r1.2 released 2012/04/29

Simple Example

Example 1: Using PFAC_matchFromHost function

The file "example_pattern" in the directory "../test/pattern/" contains 4 patterns.

AB
ABG
BEDE
ED

The file "example_input" in the directory "../test/data/"contains a string.

ABEDEDABG

The following example shows the basic steps to use PFAC library for string matching.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <PFAC.h>
        
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    char dumpTableFile[] = "table.txt" ;	  
    char inputFile[] = "../test/data/example_input" ;
    char patternFile[] = "../test/pattern/example_pattern" ;
    PFAC_handle_t handle ;
    PFAC_status_t PFAC_status ;
    int input_size ;    
    char *h_inputString = NULL ;
    int  *h_matched_result = NULL ;

    // step 1: create PFAC handle 
    PFAC_status = PFAC_create( &handle ) ;
    assert( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS == PFAC_status );
    
    // step 2: read patterns and dump transition table 
    PFAC_status = PFAC_readPatternFromFile( handle, patternFile) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to read pattern from file, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }
    
    // dump transition table 
    FILE *table_fp = fopen( dumpTableFile, "w") ;
    assert( NULL != table_fp ) ;
    PFAC_status = PFAC_dumpTransitionTable( handle, table_fp );
    fclose( table_fp ) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to dump transition table, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }
   
    //step 3: prepare input stream
    FILE* fpin = fopen( inputFile, "rb");
    assert ( NULL != fpin ) ;
    
    // obtain file size
    fseek (fpin , 0 , SEEK_END);
    input_size = ftell (fpin);
    rewind (fpin);
    
    // allocate memory to contain the whole file
    h_inputString = (char *) malloc (sizeof(char)*input_size);
    assert( NULL != h_inputString );
 
    h_matched_result = (int *) malloc (sizeof(int)*input_size);
    assert( NULL != h_matched_result );
    memset( h_matched_result, 0, sizeof(int)*input_size ) ;
     
    // copy the file into the buffer
    input_size = fread (h_inputString, 1, input_size, fpin);
    fclose(fpin);    
    
    // step 4: run PFAC on GPU           
    PFAC_status = PFAC_matchFromHost( handle, h_inputString, input_size, h_matched_result ) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to PFAC_matchFromHost, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }     

    // step 5: output matched result
    for (int i = 0; i < input_size; i++) {
        if (h_matched_result[i] != 0) {
            printf("At position %4d, match pattern %d\n", i, h_matched_result[i]);
        }
    }

    PFAC_status = PFAC_destroy( handle ) ;
    assert( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS == PFAC_status );
    
    free(h_inputString);
    free(h_matched_result); 
            
    return 0;
}

The screen shows the following matched results.

At position    0, match pattern 1
At position    1, match pattern 3
At position    2, match pattern 4
At position    4, match pattern 4
At position    6, match pattern 2

Example 2: Using PFAC_matchFromDevice function

Prepare the same input file and pattern file. The screen shows the same matched results as example 1.

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <assert.h>
#include <cuda_runtime.h>
#include <PFAC.h>
        
int main(int argc, char **argv)
{
    char dumpTableFile[] = "table.txt" ;	  
    char inputFile[] = "../test/data/example_input" ;
    char patternFile[] = "../test/pattern/example_pattern" ;
    PFAC_handle_t handle ;
    PFAC_status_t PFAC_status ;
    int input_size ;    
    char *h_input_string = NULL ;
    int  *h_matched_result = NULL ;

    char *d_input_string;
    int *d_matched_result;
    cudaError_t status; 

    // step 1: create PFAC handle 
    PFAC_status = PFAC_create( &handle ) ;
    assert( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS == PFAC_status );
    
    // step 2: read patterns and dump transition table 
    PFAC_status = PFAC_readPatternFromFile( handle, patternFile) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to read pattern from file, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }
    
    // dump transition table 
    FILE *table_fp = fopen( dumpTableFile, "w") ;
    assert( NULL != table_fp ) ;
    PFAC_status = PFAC_dumpTransitionTable( handle, table_fp );
    fclose( table_fp ) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to dump transition table, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }
   
    //step 3: prepare input stream
    FILE* fpin = fopen( inputFile, "rb");
    assert ( NULL != fpin ) ;
    
    // obtain file size
    fseek (fpin , 0 , SEEK_END);
    input_size = ftell (fpin);
    rewind (fpin);
    
    // allocate memory to contain the whole file
    h_input_string = (char *) malloc (sizeof(char)*input_size);
    assert( NULL != h_input_string );
 
    // allocate memory to contain the matched results
    h_matched_result = (int *) malloc (sizeof(int)*input_size);
    assert( NULL != h_matched_result );
    memset( h_matched_result, 0, sizeof(int)*input_size ) ;
     
    // copy the file into the buffer
    input_size = fread (h_input_string, 1, input_size, fpin);
    fclose(fpin); 
        
    // compute the size of for stroing the matched results
    int data_size = sizeof(int) * input_size;   
        
    // allocate GPU memory for input string 
    status = cudaMalloc((void **) &d_input_string, input_size);
    if ( cudaSuccess != status ){
        fprintf(stderr, "Error: %s\n", cudaGetErrorString(status));
        exit(1) ;
    }
    
    // allocate GPU memory for matched result
    status = cudaMalloc((void **) &d_matched_result, data_size);
    if ( cudaSuccess != status ){
        fprintf(stderr, "Error: %s\n", cudaGetErrorString(status));
        exit(1) ;
    }
    
    // copy input string from host to device
    cudaMemcpy(d_input_string, h_input_string, input_size, cudaMemcpyHostToDevice);
          
    // step 4: run PFAC on GPU by calling PFAC_matchFromDevice          
    PFAC_status = PFAC_matchFromDevice( handle, d_input_string, input_size, d_matched_result ) ;
    if ( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS != PFAC_status ){
        printf("Error: fails to PFAC_matchFromHost, %s\n", PFAC_getErrorString(PFAC_status) );
        exit(1) ;	
    }     
    
    // copy the result data from device to host
    cudaMemcpy(h_matched_result, d_matched_result, data_size, cudaMemcpyDeviceToHost);

    // step 5: output matched result
    for (int i = 0; i < input_size; i++) {
        if (h_matched_result[i] != 0) {
            printf("At position %4d, match pattern %d\n", i, h_matched_result[i]);
        }
    }

    PFAC_status = PFAC_destroy( handle ) ;
    assert( PFAC_STATUS_SUCCESS == PFAC_status );
    
    free(h_input_string);
    free(h_matched_result); 
    cudaFree(d_input_string);
    cudaFree(d_matched_result);
            
    return 0;
}

Refer to the user guide page for further information and examples.

Publications

Cheng-Hung Lin, Chen-Hsiung Liu, Lung-Sheng Chien, Shih-Chieh Chang, "Accelerating Pattern Matching Using a Novel Parallel Algorithm on GPUs," IEEE Transactions on Computers, vol. 62, no. 10, pp. 1906-1916, Oct. 2013, doi:10.1109/TC.2012.254
Cheng-Hung Lin, Sheng-Yu Tsai, Chen-Hsiung Liu, Shih-Chieh Chang, and Jyuo-Min Shyu, "Accelerating String Matching Using Multi-threaded Algorithm on GPU," in Proc. of IEEE GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS CONFERENCE (GLOBECOM), Miami, Florida, USA, December 6-10, pp.1-5, 2010.

Contributors

The primary developers of PFAC are Lung-Sheng Chien, Chen-Hsiung Liu, Cheng-Hung Lin, and Shih-Chieh Chang. Website maintainer Chun-Cheng Huang

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