Producer Consumer Misunderstanding in Threading - java

I want the ProducerThread to produce random values upto 10 and then expect ConsumerThread to consumer those values of Queue. Somewhere Producer is generating adding the values more than once. I have a concept that when we call notify on an object than that Thread would release lock and give chance to Thread which was expecting updation.
Here is the code, please correct my understanding.
public class ProducerThread extends Thread {
Queue<Integer> values;
ProducerThread(Queue<Integer> values) {
this.values = values;
}
public void run() {
while(true) {
synchronized(values) {
double totalValues = Math.random()*10;
System.out.println("Going to populate total values:" + totalValues);
for (int i = 1; i <= totalValues; i++) {
values.add(i);
System.out.println("Value updated: " + i);
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
values.notify();
}
}
}
}
public class ConsumerThread extends Thread {
Queue<Integer> values;
ConsumerThread(Queue<Integer> values) {
this.values = values;
}
#Override
public void run() {
while(true) {
synchronized (values) {
try {
// Consumer Thread waits until values are populated by Producer Thread
if(values.isEmpty()) {
values.wait();
}
Iterator<Integer> iterateValues = values.iterator();
System.out.println("Going to consume values: " + values.size());
while (iterateValues.hasNext()) {
Integer removedValue = iterateValues.next();
System.out.println("Value deleted: " + removedValue);
}
values.clear();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Queue<Integer> values = new LinkedList<Integer>();
ProducerThread producer = new ProducerThread(values);
ConsumerThread consumer = new ConsumerThread(values);
consumer.start();
producer.start();
}
}

Aha! You have encountered the dreaded race condition!
Immediately after notify returns in your ProducerThread, said thread still has the lock. The ConsumerThread, woken up by the notify, will see that the lock is not available, and will wait until it becomes available.
Then the ProducerThread gives up the lock, it will then enter a race with the ConsumerThread to take that lock back (ProducerThread by way of re-entering the synchronized block, and ConsumerThread by means of having to return from wait). There is no guarantee which of these will win.
If you want your ProducerThread to wait for the items to be consumed before producing more, you should consider another wait/notify for that scenario.
EDIT: This image might help to explain things a bit more clearly.

Related

Producer-Consumer Problem with 2 processes in Java

I got task from my professor related to Producer-Consumer problem.
The task is implement Producer-Consumer process, but
first process should increase its value by 5 each time
second process should divide its value by 2 each time.
I found some examples of code, but nothing about multiple processes. Here is one of them.
--
// Java program to implement solution of producer
// consumer problem.
import java.util.LinkedList;
public class Threadexample {
public static void main(String[] args)
throws InterruptedException
{
// Object of a class that has both produce()
// and consume() methods
final PC pc = new PC();
// Create producer thread
Thread t1 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run()
{
try {
pc.produce();
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
// Create consumer thread
Thread t2 = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run()
{
try {
pc.consume();
}
catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
});
// Start both threads
t1.start();
t2.start();
// t1 finishes before t2
t1.join();
t2.join();
}
// This class has a list, producer (adds items to list
// and consumber (removes items).
public static class PC {
// Create a list shared by producer and consumer
// Size of list is 2.
LinkedList<Integer> list = new LinkedList<>();
int capacity = 2;
// Function called by producer thread
public void produce() throws InterruptedException
{
int value = 0;
while (true) {
synchronized (this)
{
// producer thread waits while list
// is full
while (list.size() == capacity)
wait();
System.out.println("Producer produced-"
+ value);
// to insert the jobs in the list
list.add(value++);
// notifies the consumer thread that
// now it can start consuming
notify();
// makes the working of program easier
// to understand
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}
// Function called by consumer thread
public void consume() throws InterruptedException
{
while (true) {
synchronized (this)
{
// consumer thread waits while list
// is empty
while (list.size() == 0)
wait();
// to retrive the ifrst job in the list
int val = list.removeFirst();
System.out.println("Consumer consumed-"
+ val);
// Wake up producer thread
notify();
// and sleep
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}
}
}
Output:
Producer produced-0
Producer produced-1
Consumer consumed-0
Consumer consumed-1
Producer produced-2
I am not sure if I understand my task completely. Is it possible to implement given task on this code? I want you to give me some suggestions or any sources, so I can understand what to do.
Thank you all in advance!
If I correctly understand your problem from your description, you should change the field's value from two threads. You would like to create a class-level field and two synchronized methods for changing his value after that create two threads and call from them both operations alternately. I think you can write that:
public class Solution0 {
private volatile int count;
public synchronized void increment() throws InterruptedException {
count = count + 5;
Thread.sleep(1000);
notifyAll();
wait();
}
public synchronized void divide() throws InterruptedException {
count = count / 2;
Thread.sleep(1000);
notifyAll();
wait();
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
Solution0 solution = new Solution0();
Thread t1 = new Thread(() -> {
try {
while (true){
solution.increment();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
Thread t2 = new Thread(() -> {
try {
while (true){
solution.divide();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
});
t1.start();
t2.start();
}
}
Also, you can change the type of field count from int to double, if you need a real number.

Does wait() wait for the referenced object or the reference itself if called on a reference?

In this case, will thread 1 actually be notified (while waiting for the reference instead of the object itself)?
static Object lock=new Object();
//Thread 1:
Object reference=lock;
reference.wait();
//Thread 2:
lock.notify();
The synchronized method evaluates the expression given to the synchronized block in order to figure out what lock to take. Then wait, notify, etc. need to be called on the same object, but whether the same variable is used is immaterial. The code evaluates the expression in order to get the object.
Now whether thread1 waits, is notified, and wakes up depends on the outcome of a race condition. If thread1 enters the wait method before thread2 calls notify, then thread2 will wait and then wake up once thread2 notifies. If thread2 calls notify before thread1 enters the wait method then thread1 waits forever.
Waiting for the reference or the object pointed to by that reference is the same thing since a lock is obtained on an object. No matter how many references are there, if they point to the same object in memory wait(), notify(), notifyall() will work seamlessly. Check out the code below.
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.Queue;
import java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue;
public class ProducerConsumer {
private Queue<Integer> queue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<>(10);
private LinkedList<Integer> list = new LinkedList<>();
int limit = 10;
public static void main(String[] args) {
final ProducerConsumer pc = new ProducerConsumer();
final ProducerConsumer pcRef = pc;
Thread producer = new Thread(new Runnable() {
int i = 1;
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
synchronized (pcRef) {
while (pc.limit == pc.list.size()) {
try {
pcRef.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
pc.list.add(i);
System.out.println("Producer #work : " + pc.list.size());
pcRef.notify();
}
}
}
});
Thread consumer = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
synchronized (pc) {
while (0 == pc.list.size()) {
try {
pc.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
int val = pc.list.removeFirst();
System.out.println("Consumer #work : " + pc.list.size() + " : " + val);
pc.notify();
}
}
}
});
producer.start();
consumer.start();
try {
producer.join();
consumer.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Comment the below line and you will see that the consumer thread is waiting to be notified.
pc.list.add(i);
System.out.println("Producer #work : " + pc.list.size());
//pcRef.notify();

Blocked using wait() and notify() in Java

I am writing producer and consumer code using wait() and notify() in Java.
Thread-0 is created and is invoked on produce() and Thread-1 is created and is invoked on consume().
public class Processor {
private volatile List<Integer> list = new ArrayList<>();
private final int MAX_CAPACITY = 5;
Object lock = new Object();
public void produce() throws InterruptedException {
while (true) {
while (list.size() == MAX_CAPACITY) {
System.out.println("List is full! Producer is Waiting....");
synchronized (lock) {
lock.wait();
}
}
synchronized (lock) {
int random = new Random().nextInt(100);
list.add(random);
System.out.println("Added to list:" + random);
lock.notify();
}
}
}
public void consume() throws InterruptedException {
while (true) {
while (list.size() == 0) {
System.out.println("List is empty!! Consumer is Waiting...");
synchronized (lock) {
lock.wait();
}
}
synchronized (lock) {
int i = list.remove(0);
System.out.println("Removed from list:" + i);
lock.notify();
}
}
}
}
The problem is that during execution, program stops after produce():
List is empty!! Consumer is Waiting...
Added to list:22
Added to list:45
Added to list:72
Added to list:91
Added to list:51
List is full! Producer is Waiting....
I am not able to understand what's the problem here. I somehow figured out that wrapping the code from while loop in synchronized block in produce() and consume() solves the problem.
produce()
synchronized (lock) {
while (list.size() == MAX_CAPACITY) {
System.out.println("List is full! Producer is Waiting....");
lock.wait();
}
consume
synchronized (lock) {
while (list.size() == 0) {
System.out.println("List is empty!! Consumer is Waiting...");
lock.wait();
}
}
What is the issue here? Is it a case of Thread starvation or deadlock?
Edit: Calling class:
public class App {
public static void main(String[] args) {
final Processor processor = new Processor();
Runnable r1 = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
processor.produce();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Runnable r2 = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
processor.consume();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Thread t1 = new Thread(r1);
Thread t2 = new Thread(r2);
t1.start();
t2.start();
}
}
When you perform list.size() it is not thread safe and there is no guarentee you will ever see the value changed in another thread. The JIT could even inline the value if it detects you are not changing it in that thread.
By placing the synchronized block outside the loop you ensure a change in the value is visible (as it is also inside the while(true) loop.
Using synchronized outside loop creates read barrier. Therefore producer/consumer will see latest list inside loop where you are checking list.size(). That is why it works after you move while loop inside synchronized block.
In your case I would also suggest you to use single synchronized block in producer/consumer.
For example in your implementation if list.size() == 0 becomes false for consumer, it will release lock on lock object then in the next statement try to re-acquire lock again for consuming the data, which is unnecessary and inefficient. It should be like:
public void consume() throws InterruptedException {
while (true) {
synchronized (lock) {
while (list.size() == 0) {
System.out.println("List is empty!! Consumer is Waiting...");
lock.wait();
}
int i = list.remove(0);
System.out.println("Removed from list:" + i);
lock.notify();
}
}
}

Notify not getting the thread out of wait state

I am trying to use 2 threads. 1 thread prints only odd number and the other thread prints only even number and It has to be an alternative operation.
Eg:
Thread1 1
Thread2 2
Thread1 3
Thread2 4
and so on..
Below is the program, please let me know where I am going wrong as the thread1 is not coming out of wait state even when the thread2 is notifying it..
public class ThreadInteraction {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ThreadInteraction().test();
}
private void test() {
ThreadA ta = new ThreadA();
Thread t = new Thread(ta);
t.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
for(int i=2;i<=50;){
System.out.println("Thread2 "+i);
synchronized (t) {
try {
t.notify();
t.wait();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
i=i+2;
}
}
}
class ThreadA implements Runnable{
#Override
public void run() {
for(int i=1;i<50;){
System.out.println("Thread1 "+i);
synchronized (this) {
try {
notify();
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
i=i+2;
}
}
}
Problem is that in one case you are taking lock on Thread t [synchronized (t) ] while in other case you are taking lock on TheadA object itself [synchronized(this)].
If you want threads to talk to each other then both should take lock on same object only then wait notify will work as you expect.
Edit:
There is another problem in your program, you are not using any variable to coordinate between 2 threads. SO you may see output like this 2,1,4,3...so on. Point is threads will work alternately but not in sequence.
So you should share a single variable between 2 threads which should be incremented.
Second issue is you are not taking care of spurious wake up calls [read some docs on this], you should always have wait called inside a while loop.
Modified my code based on the answer provided by Lokesh
public class ThreadInteraction {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new ThreadInteraction().test();
}
private void test() {
ThreadA ta = new ThreadA();
Thread t = new Thread(ta);
t.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
e1.printStackTrace();
}
for(int i=2;i<=50;){
System.out.println("Thread2 "+i);
synchronized (ta) {
try {
ta.notify();
ta.wait();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
i=i+2;
}
}
}
class ThreadA implements Runnable{
#Override
public void run() {
for(int i=1;i<50;){
System.out.println("Thread1 "+i);
synchronized (this) {
try {
notify();
wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
i=i+2;
}
}
}
You have a real confusion of threads and locks. I suggest you create one and only one object to use for locking to start with as you don't appear to have a clear idea what you are locking.
If you notify() and nothing is listening, the signal is lost. However, a wait() can wake spuriously.
For this reason, a notify() should be accompanied by a state change and a wait() should be in a loop checking that change.

How to solve this thread blocking issue

I'm testing a Java multi-threading sample code but the thread started in the for loop of qB.start() is blocked because it's waiting for entry of qB monitor. What is the cause of this blockage?
Thank you.
import java.util.*;
class QA {
public synchronized void open() throws Exception {
Thread o = new Thread() {
public void run() {
QB qB = new QB();
qB.start();
}
};
o.start();
}
public static void main(String args[]) throws Exception {
new QA().open();
}
public class QB {
private boolean shutdown;
private Vector<Thread> tList;
private final Object waitingLock = new Object();
public QB() {
tList = new Vector<Thread>();
}
public synchronized void start() {
for(int i = 0; i < 1; i++) {
final int id = i;
Thread t = new Thread("Thread " + id) {
public void run() {
load(id);
}
};
tList.add(i, t);
t.start();
}
tMonitor();
waitUntilFinished();
}
private void tMonitor() {
Thread cmt = new Thread("T Monitor Thread") {
public void run() {
synchronized(waitingLock) {
while(tList.size() > 0) {
try {
sleep(10000);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
waitingLock.notifyAll();
}
}
};
cmt.start();
}
private void waitUntilFinished() {
synchronized(waitingLock) {
while(!isShutDown()) {
try {
waitingLock.wait();
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
private synchronized void load(int id) {
try {
System.out.println("blocked here");
// some work done here
removeFromTList(id);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public synchronized boolean isShutDown() {
return shutdown;
}
}
}
The first problem I see is that QB#start() is synchronized on the instance of QB.
Inside the thread t that you are trying to spawn, load(id) is also synchronized on the same instance of QB. So when you call t.start() the t thread blocks until QB#start() finishes.
Presumably, at the end of the QB#start() method, QB#waitUntilFinished() is supposed to wait for all the t threads to finish, but they can't even enter the QB#load method because they're still waiting for the QB#start() method to release the lock on the QB instance.
So, circular deadlock.
Edit:
Ok, now that we see how the threads are removed from tList the bug is fully revealed.
If the index 0 thread finishes first then it will remove itself from the list. That means when the index 1 thread finishes, it will remove the 1th position from the Vector but that does not point to itself anymore. It is removing the #2 thread. Sooner or later you are going to get an exception when the remove happens because it is going to be removing an invalid index.
You need to remove items from the Vector by address and not by position:
tList.remove(this);
That will remove the current thread from the list. You should also just do an add(t) instead of an add(i t) in the start loop:
tList.add(t);
You now don't need the id position passed into your thread at all.
I don't see where you are removing the finished threads from your tList. I see a definition (not that you edited your OP) of a removeFromTList() method but I don't see it used anywhere. In tMonitor you are in a while loop here:
while(tList.size() > 0) {
try {
sleep(10000);
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
// you never get to this line
        waitingLock.notifyAll();
But I don't see anything that removes the thread from the list. Maybe when the threads each finish they are supposed to remove themselves?
If tMonitor thread never gets out of that loop then it never calls:
waitingLock.notifyAll();
So the main thread will hang forever in waitUntilFinished();.
synchronized(waitingLock) {
while(!isShutDown()) {
try {
waitingLock.wait();
} catch(Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Also, you don't want to do a sleep in tMonitor() because you are in a synchronized block. You should be doing a:
waitingLock.wait(10000);
Nothing will ever notify it but it's bad form to hold the lock like that in a sleep.

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