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Write multiple files with same string without hanging the UI

I am working on an Android App that changes the CPU Frequency when a foreground app changes. The frequencies for the foreground app is defined in my application itself. But while changing the frequencies my app has to open multiple system files and replace the frequency with my text. This makes my UI slow and when I change apps continuously, it makes the systemUI crash. What can I do to write these multiple files all together at the same time?
I have tried using ASynctaskLoader but that too crashes the SystemUI later.
public static boolean setFreq(String max_freq, String min_freq) {
ByteArrayInputStream inputStream = new ByteArrayInputStream(max_freq.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
ByteArrayInputStream inputStream1 = new ByteArrayInputStream(min_freq.getBytes(Charset.forName("UTF-8")));
SuFileOutputStream outputStream;
SuFileOutputStream outputStream1;
try {
if (max_freq != null) {
int cpus = 0;
while (true) {
SuFile f = new SuFile(CPUActivity.MAX_FREQ_PATH.replace("cpu0", "cpu" + cpus));
SuFile f1 = new SuFile(CPUActivity.MIN_FREQ_PATH.replace("cpu0", "cpu" + cpus));
outputStream = new SuFileOutputStream(f);
outputStream1 = new SuFileOutputStream(f1);
ShellUtils.pump(inputStream, outputStream);
ShellUtils.pump(inputStream1, outputStream1);
if (!f.exists()) {
break;
}
cpus++;
}
}
} catch (Exception ex) {
}
return true;
}

I assume SuFile and SuFileOutputStream are your custom implementations extending Java File and FileOutputStream classes.
Couple of points need to be fixed first.
f.exists() check should be before initializing OutputStream, otherwise it will create the file before checking exists or not. This makes your while loop to become an infinite loop.
as #Daryll suggested, use the number of CPUs with while/for loop. I suggest using for loop.
close your streams after pump(..) method call.
If you want to keep the main thread free, then you can do something like this,
see this code segment:
public static void setFreq(final String max_freq, final String min_freq) {
new Thread(new Runnable() {
//Put all the stuff here
}).start();
}
This should solve your problem.

Determine the number of CPUs before hand and use that number in your loop rather than using a while (true) having to do SuFile.exists() every cycle.
I don't know what SuFileOutputStream is but you may need to close those file output streams or find a faster way to write the file if that implementation is too slow.

Saving and Loading Custom Objects in Java Program

I am writing a small program to help with planning future workouts. I am nearly finished however saving and loading is giving me some trouble. The program works with a list of "ride"(a custom class) objects that hold a number of qualities (like a Dat, and then some ints and doubles)
right now, I have two methods, a "saver" and a "loader":
public void saver() {
try{ // Catch errors in I/O if necessary.
// Open a file to write to, named SavedObj.sav.
FileOutputStream saveFile=new FileOutputStream("SaveObj.sav");
// Create an ObjectOutputStream to put objects into save file.
ObjectOutputStream save = new ObjectOutputStream(saveFile);
// Now we do the save.
for (int x = 0; x < rides.size(); x++) {
save.writeObject(rides.get(x).getDate());
save.writeObject(rides.get(x).getMinutes());
save.writeObject(0);
save.writeObject(rides.get(x).getIF());
save.writeObject(rides.get(x).getTss());
}
// Close the file.
save.close(); // This also closes saveFile.
}
catch(Exception exc){
exc.printStackTrace(); // If there was an error, print the info.
}
}
public void loader() {
try{
// Open file to read from, named SavedObj.sav.
FileInputStream saveFile = new FileInputStream("SaveObj.sav");
// Create an ObjectInputStream to get objects from save file.
ObjectInputStream save = new ObjectInputStream(saveFile);
Ride worker;
while(save.available() > 0) {
worker = new Ride((Date)save.readObject(), (int)save.readObject(), (double)save.readObject(), (double)save.readObject(), (int)save.readObject());
addRide(worker.getDate(), worker.getMinutes(), 0, worker.getIF(), worker.getTss());
}
// Close the file.
save.close(); // This also closes saveFile.
}
catch(Exception exc){
exc.printStackTrace(); // If there was an error, print the info.
}
}
When I run the program, neither "save" nor "load" return any errors. A .sav file is created when one does not exist, and is edited each time the program is executed. Yet, the program never restores data from previous sessions. Please let me know if more information is required.
Thanks in advance for the help!

Don't use available() which returns the number of bytes that can be read without blocking. It doesn't mean what all bytes were read.
If your objects are never null, you could use Object readObject() to check if all data were read from the inputstream.
Date date = null;
while( (date = (Date)save.readObject()) != null) {
worker = new Ride(date, (int)save.readObject(), (double)save.readObject(), (double)save.readObject(), (int)save.readObject());
addRide(worker.getDate(), worker.getMinutes(), 0, worker.getIF(), worker.getTss());
}
Otherwise if read values may be null, you could serialize directly the Ride object or a class containing all fields to serialize rather than unitary fields which could be null With this, the check to know if all data were read with Object readObject() could work.

Do not use available() as a condition. It just tells you whether there is some byte available for immediate reading without any delay, it does not mean the stream has reached its end.
Also you should maybe add a BufferedInputStream and BufferedOutputStream between the Object and File streams, that's almost always a good idea.
To solve your issue you could e. g. first write an integer in the save method that tells you how many objects are in the file and on load read that integer and then make a simple for loop with this amount.
Or you could throw in a PushbackInputStream in the row and then as EOF check use its read() method. It will return -1 on EOF and you can abort reading. If it returns anything else, you unread() the read byte and use the ObjectInputStream that you placed on top.

How to check FileLock without truncating file?

I recently added filelocks to my downloader asynctask:
FileOutputStream file = new FileOutputStream(_outFile);
file.getChannel().lock();
and after download completes, file.close() to release lock.
From a called BroadcastReceiver (different thread), I need to go through the files and see which are downloaded and which are still locked. I started with trylock:
for (int i=0; i<files.length; i++) {
try {
System.out.print((files[i]).getName());
test = new FileOutputStream(files[i]);
FileLock lock = test.getChannel().tryLock();
if (lock != null) {
lock.release();
//Not a partial download. Do stuff.
}
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
test.close();
}
}
Unfortunately I read the file is truncated (0 bytes) when the FileOutputStream is created.
I set it to append, but the lock doesn't seem to take effect, all appear to be un-locked (fully downloaded)
Is there another way to check if a write-lock is applied to the file currently, or am I using the wrong methods here? Also, is there a way to debug file-locks, from the ADB terminal or Eclipse?

None of this is going to work. Check the Javadoc. Locks are held on behalf of the entire process, i.e. the JVM, not by individual threads.

My first thought would be to open it for append per the javadocs
test = new FileOutputStream(files[i], true); // the true specifies for append

Streaming large files with play framework and third party API

I'm writing a play 2 application and I am struggling with a file streaming problem.
I retrieve my files using a third party API with a method having the following signature:
FileMetadata getFile(OutputStream destination, String fileId)
In a traditional Servlet application, if I wanted to send the content to my client I would have done something like:
HttpServletResponse resp;
myService.getFile(resp.getOutpuStream, fileId);
My problem is that in my play 2 Controller class I don't have access to the underlying OuputStream, so the simplest implementation of my controller method would be:
public static downloadFile(String id) {
ByteArrayOutputStream baos = new BAOS(...);
myApi.getFile(baos,id); //Load inside temp Array
ByteArrayInputStream bais = new BAIS(baos.toByteArray())
return Ok(bais);
}
It will work but it requires to load the whole content into memory before serving it so it's not an option (files can be huge).
I was thinking of a solution consisting in:
Defining a ByteArrayOutputStream (baos) inside my controller
Calling the third party API with this baos in parameter
Using the chunk return of the play framework to send the content of
the baos as soon as something is written inside by the 3rd party API
Problem is that I don't know if it possible (call to getFile is blocking so it would require multiple threads with a shared OutputStream) nor if it's overkill.
As someone ever faced this kind of problem and found a solution?
Could my proposed solution solve my problem?
Any insights will be appreciated.
Thanks
EDIT 1
Based on kheraud suggestion I have managed to have a working, but still not perfect, solution (code below).
Unfortunately if a problem occurs during the call to the getFile method, error is not sent back to the client (because I returned Ok) and the browser waits indefinitely for a file that will never come.
Is there a way to handle this case ?
public static Result downloadFile(String fileId {
Thread readerThread = null;
try {
PipedOutputStream pos = new PipedOutputStream();
PipedInputStream pis = new PipedInputStream(pos);
//Reading must be done in another thread
readerThread = new DownloadFileWorker(fileId,pos);
readerThread.start();
return ok(pis);
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
return internalServerError(ex.toString());
}
}
static class DownloadFileWorker extends Thread{
String fileId;
PipedOutputStream pos;
public DownloadFileWorker(String fileId, PipedOutputStream pos) {
super();
this.fileId = fileId
this.pos = pos;
}
public void run(){
try {
myApi.getFile(pos,fileId);
pos.close();
} catch (Exception ex) {
ex.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
EDIT 2
I found a way to avoid infinite loading of the page by simply adding a pos.close in the catch() part of the worker thread. Client ends up with a zero KB file but I guess that's better than an infinite waiting.

There is something in the Play2 Scala framework made for that : Enumerators. This is very close to what you are thinking about.
You should have a look at this doc page for details
I didn't find something similar in the Play2 Java API, but looking in the fw code source, you have a :
public static Results.Status ok(java.io.InputStream content, int chunkSize)
method which seams to be what you are looking for. The implementation can be found in play.mvc.Results and play.core.j.JavaResults classes.

On the Play! mailing list, there recently was a discussion on the same topic:
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/play-framework/YunJzgxPKsU/discussion
It includes a small snippet that allows non-scala-literates (like myself) use the scala streaming interface of Play!.

Creating a List of BufferedReaders

I would like to have a method that would return a list of BufferedReader objects (for example for all files in a directory):
private List<BufferedReader> getInputReaders(List<String> filenames) {
List<BufferedReader> result = new ArrayList<BufferedReader>();
for(String filename : filenames)
result.add(new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(filename), "UTF-8")));
}
return result;
}
Will this be a major waste of resources?
Will all those streams be opened at the moment of creation and remain so therefore holding system resources?
If yes, can I create those readers in "passive" mode without actually opening streams, or is there any other workaround (so I can build a List with thousands of readers safely)?

Yes, the constructor for FileInputStream invokes open() in its constructor. open() is a native method, which will most likely reserve a file descriptor for the file.
Instead of immediately returning a list of BufferedReaders, why not return a list of something that will open the underlying stream as needed? You can create a class that holds onto a filename and simply open the resource when called.

I'm pretty sure it's a bad idea. You risk to consume all the available file descriptors, and there is no point in opening a reader to a file if you don't want to read from it.
If you want to read from the file, then open a reader, read from the file, and close the reader. Then, do the same for the next file to read from.
If you want a unique abstraction to read from various sources (URLs, files, etc.), then create your own Source interface, and multiple implementations which would wrap the resource to read from (URLSource, FileSource, etc.). Only open the actual reader on the wrapped resource when reading from your Source instance.

yes those streams will be opened as soon as they are created
good way to avoid this is to create a LazyReader class that only initializes the Reader on first read
public class LazyReader extends Reader{
String fileName;
Reader reader=null;
public LazyReader(String filename){
super();
this.fileName=fileName;
}
private void init(){
if(reader==null)
reader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(new FileInputStream(filename), "UTF-8"));
}
public int read(char[] cbuf, int off, int len){
init();
return reader.read(cbuff, off,len);
}
public int close(){
init();
reader.close();
}
//if you want marking you should also implement mark(int), reset() and markSupported()
}