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SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor with a queue

I have a need to run some threads concurrently, but need to force each process to run in a new Thread (this is due to some ThreadLocal bleed that I don't have full control over). To do so, I have been using the SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor. However, the issue with this is that it doesn't maintain a queue that allows new tasks to be submitted once it's reached the concurrency limit. What I really need to do is have functionality like the SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor but where tasks can still be submitted even after the concurrency limit has been reached - I just want those tasks to wait in the queue until another slot frees up. This is what I have right now:
SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor taskExecutor = new SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor();
taskExecutor.setConcurrencyLimit(maxThreads);
return taskExecutor;
Is there some out-of-the-box solution for this, or do I need to write something custom?

To ensure you need to execute every task in a new Thread, You are basically against use of any ThreadPool (ThreadLocal behavior in a ThreadPool is something you need to get rid of, sooner or later).
To overcome this, you can simply produce something like this,
class ThreadPerTaskExecutor implements Executor {
public void execute(Runnable r) {
Thread t = new Thread(r);
t.start();
try {
t.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
which executes the Runnable always in a new Thread.
Coming to a crude implementation, We can do something like
final Executor executor = new ThreadPerTaskExecutor();
final ExecutorService service = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(3);
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++) {
service.submit(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
System.out.println("Executed inside Thread pool with concurrency level 3"
+ Thread.currentThread().toString());
executor.execute(new Runnable() {
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(3000); //Some expensive operations here.
System.out.println(
"Executed inside new Thread always" + Thread.currentThread().toString());
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
}
This can be improved with lambdas as well after Java 8. Hope this sheds the basic idea.

Is there some out-of-the-box solution for this, or do I need to write something custom?
I think there is no out-of-the-box solution for this, and you need to write your own code for this.
You can extend the SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor for simpler/quicker implementation. Example:
public class SimpleAsyncQueueTaskExecutor extends SimpleAsyncTaskExecutor {
private Queue<Runnable> queue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Runnable>();
private AtomicInteger concurrencyValue = new AtomicInteger(0);
private void checkAndExecuteFromQueue() {
int count = concurrencyValue.get();
if (isThrottleActive() && !queue.isEmpty() &&
(count < getConcurrencyLimit())) {
Runnable task = queue.poll();
concurrencyValue.incrementAndGet();
doExecute(new ConcurrencyThrottlingRunnable(task));
}
}
private void afterExecute(Runnable task) {
queue.remove(task);
concurrencyValue.decrementAndGet();
// Check and execute other tasks
checkAndExecuteFromQueue();
}
#Override
public void execute(Runnable task, long startTimeout) {
Assert.notNull(task, "Runnable must not be null");
if (isThrottleActive() && startTimeout > TIMEOUT_IMMEDIATE) {
queue.offer(task);
checkAndExecuteFromQueue();
} else {
doExecute(task);
}
}
private class ConcurrencyThrottlingRunnable implements Runnable {
private final Runnable target;
public ConcurrencyThrottlingRunnable(Runnable target) {
this.target = target;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
this.target.run();
}
finally {
afterExecute(this.target);
}
}
}
This example code just add a queue, and override the execute method.
Hope this help.

Unit testing asynchronous computation that has to be interrupted manually

I have got a class that records eyetracking data asynchronously. There are methods to start and stop the recording process. The data is collected in a collection and the collection can only be accessed if the recording thread has finished its work. It basically encapsulates all the threading and synchronizing so the user of my library doesn't have to do it.
The heavily shortened code (generics and error handling omitted):
public class Recorder {
private Collection accumulatorCollection;
private Thread recordingThread;
private class RecordingRunnable implements Runnable {
...
public void run() {
while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
// fetch data and collect it in the accumulator
synchronized(acc) { acc.add(Eyetracker.getData()) }
}
}
}
public void start() {
accumulatorCollection = new Collection();
recordingThread = new Thread(new RecordingRunnable(accumulatorCollection));
recordingThread.start();
}
public void stop() {
recordingThread.interrupt();
}
public void getData() {
try {
recordingThread.join(2000);
if(recordingThread.isAlive()) { throw Exception(); }
}
catch(InterruptedException e) { ... }
synchronized(accumulatorCollection) { return accumulatorCollection; }
}
}
The usage is quite simple:
recorder.start();
...
recorder.stop();
Collection data = recorder.getData();
My problem with the whole thing is how to test it. Currently i am doing it like this:
recorder.start();
Thread.sleep(50);
recorder.stop();
Collection data = recorder.getData();
assert(stuff);
This works, but it is non-deterministic and slows down the test suite quite a bit (i marked these tests as integration tests, so they have to be run separately to circumvent this problem).
Is there a better way?

There is a better way using a CountDownLatch.
The non-deterministic part of the test stems from two variables in time you do not account for:
creating and starting a thread takes time and the thread may not have started executing the runnable when Thread.start() returns (the runnable will get executed, but it may be a bit later).
the stop/interrupt will break the while-loop in the Runnable but not immediately, it may be a bit later.
This is where a CountDownLatch comes in: it gives you precise information about where another thread is in execution. E.g. let the first thread wait on the latch, while the second "counts down" the latch as last statement within a runnable and now the first thread knows that the runnable finished. The CountDownLatch also acts as a synchronizer: whatever the second thread was writing to memory, can now be read by the first thread.
Instead of using an interrupt, you can also use a volatile boolean. Any thread reading the volatile variable is guaranteed to see the last value set by any other thread.
A CountDownLatch can also be given a timeout which is useful for tests that can hang: if you have to wait to long you can abort the whole test (e.g. shutdown executors, interrupt threads) and throw an AssertionError. In the code below I re-used the timeout to wait for a certain amount of data to collect instead of 'sleeping'.
As an optimization, use an Executor (ThreadPool) instead of creating and starting threads. The latter is relative expensive, using an Executor can really make a difference.
Below the updated code, I made it runnable as an application (main method). (edit 28/02/17: check maxCollect > 0 in while-loop)
import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.*;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
public class Recorder {
private final ExecutorService executor;
private Thread recordingThread;
private volatile boolean stopRecording;
private CountDownLatch finishedRecording;
private Collection<Object> eyeData;
private int maxCollect;
private final AtomicBoolean started = new AtomicBoolean();
private final AtomicBoolean stopped = new AtomicBoolean();
public Recorder() {
this(null);
}
public Recorder(ExecutorService executor) {
this.executor = executor;
}
public Recorder maxCollect(int max) { maxCollect = max; return this; }
private class RecordingRunnable implements Runnable {
#Override public void run() {
try {
int collected = 0;
while (!stopRecording) {
eyeData.add(EyeTracker.getData());
if (maxCollect > 0 && ++collected >= maxCollect) {
stopRecording = true;
}
}
} finally {
finishedRecording.countDown();
}
}
}
public Recorder start() {
if (!started.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
throw new IllegalStateException("already started");
}
stopRecording = false;
finishedRecording = new CountDownLatch(1);
eyeData = new ArrayList<Object>();
// the RecordingRunnable created below will see the values assigned above ('happens before relationship')
if (executor == null) {
recordingThread = new Thread(new RecordingRunnable());
recordingThread.start();
} else {
executor.execute(new RecordingRunnable());
}
return this;
}
public Collection<Object> getData(long timeout, TimeUnit tunit) {
if (started.get() == false) {
throw new IllegalStateException("start first");
}
if (!stopped.compareAndSet(false, true)) {
throw new IllegalStateException("data already fetched");
}
if (maxCollect <= 0) {
stopRecording = true;
}
boolean recordingStopped = false;
try {
// this establishes a 'happens before relationship'
// all updates to eyeData are now visible in this thread.
recordingStopped = finishedRecording.await(timeout, tunit);
} catch(InterruptedException e) {
throw new RuntimeException("interrupted", e);
} finally {
stopRecording = true;
}
// if recording did not stop, do not return the eyeData (could stil be modified by recording-runnable).
if (!recordingStopped) {
throw new RuntimeException("recording");
}
// only when everything is OK this recorder instance can be re-used
started.set(false);
stopped.set(false);
return eyeData;
}
public static class EyeTracker {
public static Object getData() {
try { Thread.sleep(1); } catch (Exception ignored) {}
return new Object();
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
System.out.println("Starting.");
ExecutorService exe = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
try {
Recorder r = new Recorder(exe).maxCollect(50).start();
int dsize = r.getData(2000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).size();
System.out.println("Collected " + dsize);
r.maxCollect(100).start();
dsize = r.getData(2000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).size();
System.out.println("Collected " + dsize);
r.maxCollect(0).start();
Thread.sleep(100);
dsize = r.getData(2000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS).size();
System.out.println("Collected " + dsize);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
exe.shutdownNow();
System.out.println("Done.");
}
}
}
Happy coding :)

how to override executorService shutdown method

I am creating my own thread pool and future object which can execute callable interface parallel. Executor provides shutdown method to stop all worker threads from running. If i am creating a thread pool like below how should I implement the shutdown method to stop after all threads have finished execution?
My custom thread pool looks like this
class MyThreadPool implements java.util.concurrent.Executor
{
private final java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue<Callable> queue;
public MyThreadPool(int numThreads) {
queue = new java.util.concurrent.LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
for (int i=0 ; i<numThreads ; i++) {
new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
while(true) {
queue.take().call();
}
}
}).start();
}
}
#Override
public <T> Future<T> submit(Callable<T> callable) {
FutureTask<T> future = new FutureTask(callable);
queue.put(future);
return future;
}
public void shutdown(){ }
}
I couldnt think of a way to keep list of thread and then check if they are idle or not?

You definitely should hold references to the threads you're creating. For instance, set up a field threads of type List<Thread> and add the threads to this list from within the constructor.
Afterwards, you could implement shutdown() with the help of Thread#join():
public void shutdown() {
for (Thread t : threads) {
try {
t.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) { /* NOP */ }
}
}
Don't forget to replace while (true) with an appropriate condition (which you toggle in shutdown()) and consider using BlockingQueue#poll(long, TimeUnit) rather than take().
EDIT: Something like:
public class MyThreadPool implements Executor {
private List<Thread> threads = new ArrayList<>();
private BlockingDeque<Callable> tasks = new LinkedBlockingDeque<>();
private volatile boolean running = true;
public MyThreadPool(int numberOfThreads) {
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfThreads; i++) {
Thread t = new Thread(() -> {
while (running) {
try {
Callable c = tasks.poll(5L, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
if (c != null) {
c.call();
}
} catch (Exception e) { /* NOP */ }
}
});
t.start();
threads.add(t);
}
}
public void shutdown() {
running = false;
for (Thread t : threads) {
try {
t.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) { /* NOP */ }
}
}
// ...
}

handle multiple infinite tasks in a single thread? P.S run one task at a time and control its task behavior(i.e starting/stoping task) from outside

I want to make a single thread which would contain 3 infinite tasks.
I want one task to run at a time and start/stop running task when required.
For example first I want task 1 to run, then I want task 2 to run but after stopping task 1 and again I want task 1 to run but after stopping of task 2 and so on.
Infinite task needs to check some condition and if that condition is satisfied perform some operations and if not satisfied sleep for few seconds and after wake up perform the above same operations again.
Infinite Runnable task looks some thing like this:
new Runnable(){
while(1){
if(TaskQueue.getInstance().size()<= 100){
TaskQueue.getInstance().push("add command to the end of queue");
}else{
try {
Thread.sleep(10000);
}catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
Any help would be appreciated?
Edit : I modified my question. I want a continuous single running thread(some thing like looper ) to monitor 3 infinite tasks and control this single continuous running thread tasks from outside.

Use this for start/stop thread in real-time:
class MyThread extends Thread {
private volatile boolean running = true; // Run unless told to pause
...
#Override
public void run() {
// Only keep painting while "running" is true
// This is a crude implementation of pausing the thread
while (true) {
if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
return;
}
if (running) {
//Your code
} else yield;
}
}
public void pauseThread() throws InterruptedException {
running = false;
}
public void resumeThread() {
running = true;
}
}
For pause thread use this:
myThread.pauseThread();
For resume thread use this:
myThread.resumeThread();
For stop thread use this (Not recommended):
myThread.stop();
For currently stop thread use this:
myThread.interrupt();

You must use a class like Thread that already implements Runnable.
new Thread(){....};
And the way it works it's:
Thread t = new Thread(){.....};
t.start();
t.stop();

You could also initialize a new thread, like:
Thread exampleThread = new thread();
After this you can start it at any point in your code by:
exampleThread.start();

you can use Semaphore,
to Manage the amount of signal.
private final static Semaphore semaphore = new Semaphore(0);
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
//入口
threadTest();
}
public static void thread1() {
try{
//…… some code
}
finally{
semaphore.release();
}
}
public static void thread2() {
semaphore.acquire(1);
}
The question is my first answer,thanks.

I finally made my task scheduler. The API of which looks something like this:
TaskScheduler taskScheduler = TaskScheduler.getInstance();
taskScheduler.startTaskOne();
taskScheduler.stopTaskOne();
taskScheduler.startTaskTwo();
taskScheduler.stopTaskTwo();
Runs one task at a time (because I used Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor()).
We can control the execution of the task from outside:
public class TaskScheduler {
private static ExecutorService mTaskRunningService;
private static TaskScheduler mInstance;
private Future mFirstTaskFuture = null;
private Future mSecondTaskFuture = null;
static {
configure();
}
private static void configure() {
mTaskRunningService = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
}
public static TaskScheduler getInstance() {
if (mInstance == null) {
mInstance = new TaskScheduler();
}
return mInstance;
}
private Runnable mTaskOneRunnable = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
while (true) {
/** stop this single thread (i.e executing one task at time) service if this thread is interrupted
* from outside because documentation of {#link java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor#shutdownNow()}
* says we need to do this*/
if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
return;
}
// task one work.......
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
private Runnable mTaskTwoRunnable = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
while (true) {
/** stop this single thread (i.e executing one task at time) service if this thread is interrupted
* from outside because documentation of {#link java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor#shutdownNow()}
* says we need to do this*/
if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
return;
}
// task two work......
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
public synchronized void startTaskOne() {
if (mFirstTaskFuture == null) {
// start executing runnable
mFirstTaskFuture = mTaskRunningService.submit(mTaskOneRunnable);
}
}
public synchronized boolean stopTaskOne() {
if (mFirstTaskFuture != null) {
// stop general reading thread
mFirstTaskFuture.cancel(true);
// cancel status
boolean status = mFirstTaskFuture.isDone();
// assign null because startTaskOne() again be called
mGeneralFuture = null;
return status;
}
return true;
}
public synchronized void startTaskTwo() {
if (mSecondTaskFuture == null) {
// start executing runnable
mSecondTaskFuture = mTaskRunningService.submit(mTaskTwoRunnable);
}
}
public synchronized boolean stopTaskTwo() {
if (mSecondTaskFuture != null) {
// clear task queue
mTaskQueue.clearTaskQueue();
// stop 22 probes reading thread
mSecondTaskFuture.cancel(true);
// cancel status
boolean status = mSecondTaskFuture.isDone();
// assign null because startTaskTwo() again be called
mSecondTaskFuture = null;
return status;
}
return true;
}
}

Java Thread with persistent resources

I have a pool of worker threads (an ExecutorService).
This pool is used to run shell commands.
I use a shell (/bin/sh) rather than creating a process for the executable directly, because I use shell redirects (>) to write the output directly to disk, without having to pass through the JVM, as well as some other niceties.
Spawning a shell process takes 2-3 milliseconds.
I want each thread to keep a shell process to avoid the overhead of starting it.
How do I allow each thread to own a process?
I am thinking of using a ThreadFactory with thread locals.
class ThreadFactory {
Thread newThread(Runnable r) {
return new Thread(new Runnable() {
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/sh")
try {
// store process as thread local here
r.run(); // then r can access thread local
} catch(Exception e) {
try {
process.close();
} catch(Exception e) {
}
throw e;
}
});
}
}
(Alternatively, I could subclass Thread and cast Thread.currentThread() to that class in my Runnable.)
Is this a good approach to solving this problem?

I would keep the Process reference in a ProcessRunnable that continuously executes commands. I think is more clear than using a ThreadLocal and a ThreadFactory. Something like this:
public class ShellCommandExecutor {
private int concurrency = 10;
private int capacity = 100;
private ExecutorService service = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(concurrency);
private BlockingQueue<String> commandsQueue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>(capacity);
public void start() {
for (int i = 0; i < concurrency; i++)
service.submit(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
//todo deal with ioexception
Process process = Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/sh");
while (!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
try {
String command = commandsQueue.take();
//todo execute commands using the same process per thread
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
}
}
}
});
}
public void executeCommand(String command) throws InterruptedException {
commandsQueue.put(command);
}
public void shutdown() {
service.shutdownNow();
}
}
EDIT: a solution with thread local that should work easily with cached thread pools:
public class ShellCommandExecutor2 {
//todo limit queue
private ExecutorService service = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
public void executeCommand(final String command) throws InterruptedException {
service.submit(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
Process process = ThreadLocalProcessFactory.get();
//todo execute command
}
});
}
public void shutdown() {
service.shutdownNow();
}
private static class ThreadLocalProcessFactory {
private static final ThreadLocal<Process> processThreadLocal =
new ThreadLocal<Process>() {
#Override protected Process initialValue() {
try {
return Runtime.getRuntime().exec("/bin/sh");
}
catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
return null;
}
}
};
static Process get() {
return processThreadLocal.get();
}
}
}