Running asynchronous code in java with timeout - java

In a web server i wrote, each request invokes a list of actions. Some of these actions aren't as critical as others, so I would like to run them in a background thread.
Also, since they aren't that important I don't care if one of them fails seldomly, and I don't want them to take up a thread forever, so other threads would be available to process the next batch.
So, I would like to have a thread pool (e.g.: 10 threads) and hand out a thread to each background task like this. Limit each thread to 1 second, and if it doesn't finish by that time, just kill it, and be available for the next task to come in.
How would I go about doing this ?
So far, this is what I have :
public class AsyncCodeRunner {
private static final ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
public void Run(Callable<Void> callableCode, int timeout) {
final int threadTimeout = 10;
Future<Void> callableFuture = executor.submit(callableCode);
try {
callableFuture.get(threadTimeout, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (Exception e) {
logger.Info("Thread was timed out", e);
}
}
}
And I want to use this class like this :
public void processRequest(RequestObject request) {
// do some important processing
// throw some less important processing to background thread
(new AsyncCodeRunner()).Run(new Callable<Void> () {
#Override
public Void call() throws Exception {
// do something...
return null;
}
}, 1); // 1 second timeout
// return result (without waiting for background task)
return;
}
Will this work like I want it to ? Or how should I change it so it would ?
And what happens if I call Run() but there are no available threads in the threadpool to hand out ?

I think your primary problem with this rather elegant idea is that you are only timing out on the get of the Future, you are not actually aborting the process once it times out, you are just giving up waiting for it. The issue becomes even more complex when you realise that you may even time out when the process hasn't even started - it is just still in the queue.
Perhaps something like this would be effective. It does require two threads but a TimerTask thread should consume very little.
public class RunWithTimeout {
public RunWithTimeout(Runnable r, long timeout) {
// Prepare the thread.
final Thread t = new Thread(r);
// Start the timer.
new Timer(true).schedule(new TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
if (t.isAlive()) {
// Abort the thread.
t.interrupt();
}
}
}, timeout * 1000);
// Start the thread.
t.start();
}
}
class WaitAFewSeconds implements Runnable {
final long seconds;
WaitAFewSeconds(long seconds) {
this.seconds = seconds;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(seconds * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
System.out.println("WaitAFewSeconds(" + seconds + ") - Interrupted!");
}
}
}
public void test() {
new RunWithTimeout(new WaitAFewSeconds(5), 3);
new RunWithTimeout(new WaitAFewSeconds(3), 5);
}
Here's an alternative that only uses one extra thread.
public class ThreadKiller implements Runnable {
DelayQueue<WaitForDeath> kill = new DelayQueue<>();
private class WaitForDeath implements Delayed {
final Thread t;
final long finish;
public WaitForDeath(Thread t, long wait) {
this.t = t;
this.finish = System.currentTimeMillis() + wait;
}
#Override
public long getDelay(TimeUnit unit) {
return unit.convert(finish - System.currentTimeMillis(), TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
}
#Override
public int compareTo(Delayed o) {
long itsFinish = ((WaitForDeath) o).finish;
return finish < itsFinish ? -1 : finish == itsFinish ? 0 : 1;
}
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
try {
WaitForDeath t = kill.take();
if (t.t.isAlive()) {
// Interrupt it.
t.t.interrupt();
}
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
// Not sure what to do here.
}
}
}
public void registerThread(Thread t, long wait) {
// Post it into the delay queue.
kill.add(new WaitForDeath(t, wait));
}
}
public void test() throws InterruptedException {
// Testing the ThreadKiller.
ThreadKiller killer = new ThreadKiller();
Thread killerThread = new Thread(killer);
killerThread.setDaemon(true);
Thread twoSeconds = new Thread(new WaitAFewSeconds(2));
Thread fourSeconds = new Thread(new WaitAFewSeconds(4));
killer.registerThread(twoSeconds, 5000);
killer.registerThread(fourSeconds, 3000);
killerThread.start();
twoSeconds.start();
fourSeconds.start();
System.out.println("Waiting");
Thread.sleep(10 * 1000);
System.out.println("Finished");
killerThread.interrupt();
}

You need to start timer when the thread runs. Then no thread in waiting state will be killed. Here is the sample from this thread:
import java.util.Timer;
import java.util.TimerTask;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
public class PoolTest {
class TimeOutTask extends TimerTask {
Thread t;
TimeOutTask(Thread t) {
this.t = t;
}
public void run() {
if (t != null && t.isAlive()) {
t.interrupt();
}
}
}
class MyRunnable implements Runnable {
Timer timer = new Timer(true);
public void run() {
timer.schedule(new TimeOutTask(Thread.currentThread()), 1000);
try {
System.out.println("MyRunnable...");
Thread.sleep(10000);
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
System.out.println("MyRunnable error...");
ie.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
new PoolTest();
}
public PoolTest() {
try {
ExecutorService pe = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(3);
pe.execute(new MyRunnable());
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

Related

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 */ }
}
}
// ...
}

How to notify a waiting thread without pausing the main one?

I would like my main thread to notify another thread upon a given event, but without pausing itself.
The other thread is an infinite loop, and I need it to wait after each iteration, until the main thread wakes it again.
This seems to rule out the wait/notify pattern as it does pause the thread that calls notify on the shared monitor. I also thought about CyclicBarrier but I do not want the main thread to call Barrier.await, and wait until the other thread calls Barrier.await as well, because it can take a long time...
Any idea ? Thanks !
make the waiting thread like this:
class MyThread extends Thread() {
private volatile boolean go;
public void wakeUpBuddy() {
go=true;
synchronized(this) {
notify();
}
}
public void run() {
while(!interrupted()) {
// some work before wait
synchronized(this) {
while(!go) {
wait();
}
go = false;
}
// some work after release
}
}
}
Then from the main thread call on the instance of MyThread.wakeUpBuddy(); and it will go one pass and wait for another call.
How about using Observer pattern?
import java.util.Observable;
import java.util.Observer;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;
public class Main extends Observable {
public static void main(String... args) {
final MyThread t = new MyThread();
final Main m = new Main();
m.addObserver(t);
// start the thread
t.start();
for (int i = 0; i < 25; i++) {
if (i % 5 == 0) { // event received?
m.setChanged();
m.notifyObservers(i);
}
try {
Thread.sleep(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(1));
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
}
}
}
class MyThread extends Thread implements Observer {
private boolean wait = true;
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
while (wait) {
try {
Thread.sleep(TimeUnit.SECONDS.toMillis(1));
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
// interrupted
}
}
System.out.println("I am invoked ..");
wait = true;
}
}
#Override
public void update(Observable o, Object arg) {
System.out.println("Update received .. " + arg);
wait = false;
}
}

How could I run two of my schedulers in parallel?

I have been wanting for a long time to add schedulers to my API. So I set a class for the purpose. Here it is.
public abstract class SyncScheduler extends Scheduler {
private Thread thread = null;
private boolean repeating = false;
#Override
public synchronized void runTask() {
thread = new Thread(this);
thread.start();
}
#Override
public synchronized void runTaskLater(long delay) {
thread = new Thread(this);
try {
Thread.sleep(delay * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
thread.run();
}
#Override
public synchronized void runRepeatingTask(long period) {
thread = new Thread(this);
repeating = true;
while (!thread.isInterrupted()) {
thread.run();
try {
Thread.sleep(period * 1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
#Override
public synchronized void cancel() {
if (thread != null || !repeating) {
throw new SchedulerException("Scheduler is not started or is not a repeating task!");
} else {
thread.interrupt();
repeating = false;
}
}}
Scheduler just implements Runnable.
The problem is that whenever I try to create 2 or more Schedulers, the second one never starts until the first one is finished! For example if I have on Scheduler that runs every X seconds and I have another one the cancels it, the one that cancels the first one never starts! This is the problem.
How could I run two of these schedulers in parallel?
Also these are my two test main classes.
public class Test {
static Scheduler scheduler = new SyncScheduler() {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("It works.");
}
};
public static void main(String[] args) {
scheduler.runRepeatingTask(1);
new SyncScheduler() {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Stopped.");
scheduler.cancel();
}
}.runTaskLater(2);
}}
And here's the second one.
public class Test {
static Scheduler scheduler = new SyncScheduler() {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("It works.");
new SyncScheduler() {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Stopped.");
scheduler.cancel();
}
}.runTaskLater(2);
}
};
public static void main(String[] args) {
scheduler.runRepeatingTask(1);
}}
The first one outputs "It works." repeatedly until I force stop the test.
The second one gives me "It works." for once, then It gives me "Stopped." and with it and exception.
You are using the thread object wrongly.
To start a Runnable object (in this case, Thread object) in a different thread, the object must call start() method. You are using run() method, which just calling the method in the same thread without creating a new thread.
Try to change run() in SyncScheduler.runRepeatingTask and SyncScheduler.runTaskLater.
Also, I just noticed in your cancel() method:
if (thread != null || !repeating) {
throw new SchedulerException("Scheduler is not started or is not a repeating task!");
} else {
thread.interrupt();
repeating = false;
}
This would make the method throw exception if thread started. I think it should be if (thread == null || !repeating) {

How can I start, pause and resume my threads? (by extending thread from classes)

Essentially, what I want to do is start all my threads, pause them all, then resume them all, using the multithreading approach. I am just looking for a simple solution to this. I'm not sure if I have to use a timer or what. Right now when I run it, the threads are like being executed in random order (I guess the PC is just randomly picking which ones it wants to run at a certain time).
class ChoppingThread extends Thread
{
public void run()
{
for(int j=40;j!=0;j-=10)
System.out.println("Chopping vegetables...("+j+" seconds left)");
}
}
class MixingThread extends Thread
{
public void run()
{
for(int k=60;k!=0;k-=10)
System.out.println("Mixing sauces...("+k+" seconds left)");
}
}
class TenderizingThread extends Thread
{
public void run()
{
for(int j=50;j!=0;j-=10)
System.out.println("Tenderizing meat...("+j+" seconds left)");
}
}
class MultiThreadTasking
{
public static void main (String [] args)
{
ChoppingThread ct = new ChoppingThread();
MixingThread mt = new MixingThread();
TenderizingThread tt = new TenderizingThread();
System.out.println("\nWelcome to the busy kitchen.");
//putting threads into ready state
ct.start();
mt.start();
tt.start();
}
}
There are probably other ways to achieve the same result, but this is the simplest I can come up with off the top of my head (I know, sad isn't it)...
Basically, this is a special Runnable with some additional management functionality.
This basically contains a state flag that indicates the state of the task and a monitor lock
public class ThreadFun {
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyTask task = new MyTask();
Thread thread = new Thread(task);
thread.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
task.pauseTask();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
task.resumeTask();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
task.stopTask();
}
public enum TaskState {
Running,
Stopped,
Paused
}
public static class MyTask implements Runnable {
private static final Object PAUSED_LOCK = new Object();
private volatile TaskState state = TaskState.Running;
public void pauseTask() {
if (state == TaskState.Running) {
System.out.println("Paused...");
state = TaskState.Paused;
}
}
public void resumeTask() {
if (state == TaskState.Paused) {
state = TaskState.Running;
synchronized (PAUSED_LOCK) {
PAUSED_LOCK.notifyAll();
}
System.out.println("Resumed...");
}
}
public void stopTask() {
if (state == TaskState.Running || state == TaskState.Paused) {
state = TaskState.Stopped;
System.out.println("Stopped...");
}
}
public boolean isStopped() {
return state == TaskState.Stopped;
}
public boolean isPaused() {
return state == TaskState.Paused;
}
protected void doPause() {
synchronized (PAUSED_LOCK) {
while (isPaused()) {
try {
PAUSED_LOCK.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
}
}
}
#Override
public void run() {
int index = 0;
while (!isStopped() && index < 1000) {
try {
Thread.sleep(25);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
doPause();
index++;
System.out.println(index);
}
stopTask(); // Make sure the task is marked as begin stopped ;)
}
}
}
The main criteria is you will need to pool isStopped and doPause at appropriate points to ensure that they are begin implemented as required...
To coordinate them use a CyclicBarrier.
To launch them all at the same time use a CountDownLatch.
Google the two classes above for many examples and explanations.
To fully understand what is happening read the Java Concurrency In Practice book.
I believe you can accomplish this by using Object.wait and Thread.interrupt.
Object.wait blocks until notify is called. So
private boolean paused;
private Object waitObject;
...
public void run() {
for ... {
if (this.paused) { this.waitObject.wait(); }
...
public void pause() { this.paused = true; }
public void resume() { this.paused = false; this.waitObject.notify(); }
Then you can call pause to pause the thread.
Thread.interrupt can help with stopping.
private boolean paused;
...
public void run() {
for ... {
// interrupted() is different from interrupt()!
if (this.iterrupted()) { break; }
...
To stop it, you would call interrupt() from another thread.
This is the basic idea, but there's a lot of details to worry about here. For example, wait can throw an InterruptedException you'll need to handle. Also, wait is not guaranteed to return only after a notify. It can return randomly. Here is a pair of tutorials:
Wait: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/guardmeth.html
Interrupt: http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/interrupt.html

How to thread-safe signal threads to pause in Java

I have a bunch of threads running concurrently. Sometimes a thread needs to notify other threads to wait for it to finish a job and signal them again to resume. Since I'm somehow new to Java's synchronization, I wonder what is the right way to do such thing. My code is something like this:
private void Concurrent() {
if (shouldRun()) {
// notify threads to pause and wait for them
DoJob();
// resume threads
}
// Normal job...
}
Update:
Note that the code I wrote is inside a class which will be executed by each thread. I don't have access to those threads or how they are running. I'm just inside threads.
Update 2:
My code is from a crawler class. The crawler class (crawler4j) knows how to handle concurrency. The only thing I need is to pause other crawlers before running a function and resume them afterwards. This code is the basics of my crawler:
public class TestCrawler extends WebCrawler {
private SingleThread()
{
//When this function is running, no other crawler should do anything
}
#Override
public void visit(Page page) {
if(SomeCriteria())
{
//make all other crawlers stop until I finish
SingleThread();
//let them resume
}
//Normal Stuff
}
}
Here is a short example on how to achieve this with the cool java concurrency stuff:
snip old code doesn't matter anymore with the Pause class.
EDIT:
Here is the new Test class:
package de.hotware.test;
import java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService;
import java.util.concurrent.Executors;
public class Test {
private Pause mPause;
public Test() {
this.mPause = new Pause();
}
public void concurrent() throws InterruptedException {
while(true) {
this.mPause.probe();
System.out.println("concurrent");
Thread.sleep(100);
}
}
public void crucial() throws InterruptedException {
int i = 0;
while (true) {
if (i++ % 2 == 0) {
this.mPause.pause(true);
System.out.println("crucial: exclusive execution");
this.mPause.pause(false);
} else {
System.out.println("crucial: normal execution");
Thread.sleep(1000);
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
final Test test = new Test();
Runnable run = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
test.concurrent();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
Runnable cruc = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
test.crucial();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
};
ExecutorService serv = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
serv.execute(run);
serv.execute(run);
serv.execute(cruc);
}
}
And the utility Pause class:
package de.hotware.test;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicBoolean;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.Condition;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.Lock;
import java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock;
/**
* Utility class to pause and unpause threads
* with Java Concurrency
* #author Martin Braun
*/
public class Pause {
private Lock mLock;
private Condition mCondition;
private AtomicBoolean mAwait;
public Pause() {
this.mLock = new ReentrantLock();
this.mCondition = this.mLock.newCondition();
this.mAwait = new AtomicBoolean(false);
}
/**
* waits until the threads until this.mAwait is set to true
* #throws InterruptedException
*/
public void probe() throws InterruptedException {
while(this.mAwait.get()) {
this.mLock.lock();
try {
this.mCondition.await();
} finally {
this.mLock.unlock();
}
}
}
/**
* pauses or unpauses
*/
public void pause(boolean pValue) {
if(!pValue){
this.mLock.lock();
try {
this.mCondition.signalAll();
} finally {
this.mLock.unlock();
}
}
this.mAwait.set(pValue);
}
}
The basic usage is to call probe() before each run. This will block if it is paused until pause(false) is called.
Your class would look like this:
public class TestCrawler extends WebCrawler {
private Pause mPause;
public TestCrawler(Pause pPause) {
this.mPause = pPause;
}
private SingleThread()
{
//When this function is running, no other crawler should do anything
}
#Override
public void visit(Page page) {
if(SomeCriteria())
{
//only enter the crucial part once if it has to be exclusive
this.mPause.probe();
//make all other crawlers stop until I finish
this.mPause.pause(true);
SingleThread();
//let them resume
this.mPause.pause(false);
}
this.mPause.probe();
//Normal Stuff
}
}
public class StockMonitor extends Thread {
private boolean suspend = false;
private volatile Thread thread;
public StockMonitor() {
thread = this;
}
// Use name with underscore, in order to avoid naming crashing with
// Thread's.
private synchronized void _wait() throws InterruptedException {
while (suspend) {
wait();
}
}
// Use name with underscore, in order to avoid naming crashing with
// Thread's.
public synchronized void _resume() {
suspend = false;
notify();
}
// Use name with underscore, in order to avoid naming crashing with
// Thread's.
public synchronized void _suspend() {
suspend = true;
}
public void _stop() {
thread = null;
// Wake up from sleep.
interrupt();
}
#Override
public void run() {
final Thread thisThread = Thread.currentThread();
while (thisThread == thread) {
_wait();
// Do whatever you want right here.
}
}
}
Calling _resume and _suspend will enable you to resume and pause the Thread. _stop will let you stop the thread gracefully. Note that, once you stop the Thread, there is no way to resume it again. The Thread is no longer usable.
The code is being picked from a real world open source project : http://jstock.hg.sourceforge.net/hgweb/jstock/jstock/file/b17c0fbfe37c/src/org/yccheok/jstock/engine/RealTimeStockMonitor.java#l247
You can use wait() and notify()
thread waiting:
// define mutex as field
Object mutex = new Object();
// later:
synchronized(mutex) {
wait();
}
notify the thread to continue
synchronized (mutex) {
notify();
}

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