How to solve this thread blocking issue - java

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.

Related

IndexOutOfBoundsException when list.remove run in 2 thread the same time(concurrently)

I have one list in main method and i want to write two thread for using this list. Sometimes i catch IndexOutOfBoundsException in synchronized block(when thread calls remove method).
Main method:
public class PC {
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<String> strings = new ArrayList<>();
new Costumer("c1", strings).start();
new Costumer("c2", strings).start();
new Producer("p1", strings).start();
new Producer("p2", strings).start();
new Producer("p3", strings).start();
new Producer("p4", strings).start();
}
}
Costumer class:
class Costumer extends Thread {
List<String> strings;
public Costumer(String n, List<String> strings) {
super(n);
this.strings = strings;
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
synchronized (strings) {
try {
if (strings.isEmpty()) {
strings.wait();
}
strings.remove(0); // <- where exception is thrown
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
}
}
}
}
Producer class:
class Producer extends Thread {
List<String> strings;
public Producer(String n, List<String> strings) {
super(n);
this.strings = strings;
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
synchronized (strings) {
strings.add(String.valueOf(Math.random() * 1000));
if (strings.size() == 1) {
strings.notify();
}
}
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
}
}
}
Stack trace:
Exception in thread "c2" java.lang.IndexOutOfBoundsException: Index: 0, Size: 0
at java.util.ArrayList.rangeCheck(Unknown Source)
at java.util.ArrayList.remove(Unknown Source)
at Costumer.run(PC.java:40)
The problem in your code is the if test in your Costumer class it must be replaced with a while loop otherwise you can face race condition issues. Indeed let's say that we have one consumer waiting to be notified, we have one consumer waiting for the lock on strings and we have the producer that has the lock on strings and that adds a new string and calls notify as we had no more string. So once it will release the lock, let's say that the consumer waiting for the lock gets it first (yes don't forget that the consumer that has been notified still needs to acquire the lock and could not necessary get the lock first), it then removes a String, then the second consumer (the one that has been notified by the consumer) will start from strings.wait() and will call strings.remove(0) without checking if it is empty or not then you will get IndexOutOfBoundsException.
In other words the code should be this:
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
synchronized (strings) {
try {
while (strings.isEmpty()) {
strings.wait();
}
strings.remove(0);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
}
}
}
Anyway it is a good practice to wrap your condition into a while loop to avoid weird bug like this one. You can check how it is done in a class like ArrayBlockingQueue for example, all conditions are checked in a while loop.

Exception in thread "Thread-0" java.util.NoSuchElementException?

I am new to using threads. In another class an instance of the ConnectionMaster class is created and started (extends thread). A Client object is given to the ConnectionMaster object which adds it to the list. The overridden run() method of the Thread class essentially listens for a client to be added to the list. Indeed it does listen and "hears" when a Client object is added to the list. However, although .hasNext() returns true .Next() causes an exception. What am I doing wrong?
The following methods are from class ConnectionMaster which extends Thread:
Constructor
public ConnectionMaster(){
clients = new Vector<>();
listIterator = clients.listIterator();
}
Public method for adding client objects to the list
#Override
public synchronized void addClient(Client client) {
listIterator.add(client);
}
This is the overridden thread method of the class Thread. It consistently checks for elements added to the list.
#Override
public void run(){
while(true){
while(listIterator.hasNext()){
processClient(listIterator.next()); //this is where error occurs
listIterator.remove();
}
while(listIterator.hasPrevious()){
processClient(listIterator.previous());
listIterator.remove();
}
}
}
////////////////////////////////UPDATE////////////////////////////////////
Thank You OldCurmudgeon and Stephen C.
Based on your feedback, my code has been modified thus:
Constructor
public ConnectionMaster(){
clients = new ArrayBlockingQueue<Client>(1024);
}
Method for receiving client objects
#Override
public synchronized void addClient(Client client) {
try {
clients.put(client);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Listener
#Override
public void run(){
while(true){
try {
processClient((Client)clients.take());
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
This is a very strange way to implement Producer/Consumer. The usual way is to use a BlockingQueue.
public class TwoThreads {
public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException {
System.out.println("TwoThreads:Test");
new TwoThreads().test();
}
// The end of the list.
private static final Integer End = -1;
static class Producer implements Runnable {
final BlockingQueue<Integer> queue;
public Producer(BlockingQueue<Integer> queue) {
this.queue = queue;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++) {
queue.add(i);
Thread.sleep(1);
}
// Finish the queue.
queue.add(End);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
// Just exit.
}
}
}
static class Consumer implements Runnable {
final BlockingQueue<Integer> queue;
public Consumer(BlockingQueue<Integer> queue) {
this.queue = queue;
}
#Override
public void run() {
boolean ended = false;
while (!ended) {
try {
Integer i = queue.take();
ended = i == End;
System.out.println(i);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
ended = true;
}
}
}
}
public void test() throws InterruptedException {
BlockingQueue<Integer> queue = new LinkedBlockingQueue<>();
Thread pt = new Thread(new Producer(queue));
Thread ct = new Thread(new Consumer(queue));
// Start it all going.
pt.start();
ct.start();
// Wait for it to finish.
pt.join();
ct.join();
}
}
What am I doing wrong?
Quite a lot actually.
First thing you are doing wrong is (apparently) using an ListIterator object in multiple threads. The ListIterator and Iterator implementations for Vector are not thread-safe1, so what you are doing is potentially hazardous.
The second thing is that even if the iterators / list iterators were thread-safe, you are performing a sequence of operations (e.g. hasNext, next, remove) without doing anything to ensure that the sequence of operations is performed in a way that is threadsafe. There is a distinct possibility that two threads could be performing the same sequence simultaneously on the shared iterator, and that one could interfere with the other.
I'm not sure what to suggest in order to fix your code. Two threads sharing an iterator is not going to work.
It would probably be better to ditch it, and use some kind of Queue as suggested by #OldCurmugeon.
Either problem 1 or problem 2 (as outlined above) could give rise to NoSuchElement exceptions.
1 - This is apparent from examining the source code - http://grepcode.com/file/repository.grepcode.com/java/root/jdk/openjdk/8u40-b25/java/util/Vector.java#Vector.ListItr .

Java Multithreading doesn't seem to be correctly working

I have a class which processes something. I'm trying to run a number of instances of this class in parallel.
However, I'm not sure if in TaskManager.startAll(), when I call r.go(), whether this would cause r to start running in its own thread, or within the main thread?
The total execution time that I'm getting seems to be very high, and despite my attempts at optimizing, nothing seems to be having any effect. Also, if I run a profiler on my project in Netbeans, it shows all the threads as sleeping. So I'd like to know if I'm doing something wrong?
This is the structure of the class:
public class TaskRunner implements Runnable {
private boolean isRunning = false;
public void run() {
while(true) {
while (! running) {
try {
Thread.sleep(1);
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
process();
}
}
public void go() {
isRunning = true;
}
public void stop() {
isRunning = false;
}
private void process() {
//Do some number crunching and processing here
}
}
Here's how these are being run / managed:
public class TaskManager {
private ArrayList<TaskRunner> runners = new ArrayList<>();
public TaskManager() {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
TaskRunner r = new TaskRunner();
new Thread(r).start();
runners.add(r);
}
}
public void startAll() {
for (TaskRunner r : runners) {
r.go();
}
}
}
Indeed, you are not "doing it right." If you want to create a multi-threaded Java application, the place to start is with the java.util.concurrent package.
It appears from your code that you want to run ten tasks in parallel. I assume that after "number crunching and processing," you'll want to aggregate the results and do something with them in the main thread. For this, the invokeAll() method of ExecutorService works well.
First, implement Callable to do the work you show in your process() method.
final class YourTask implements Callable<YourResults> {
private final YourInput input;
YourTask(YourInput input) {
this.input = input;
}
#Override
public YourResults call()
throws Exception
{
/* Do some number crunching and processing here. */
return new YourResults(...);
}
}
Then create your tasks and run them. This would take the place of your main() method:
Collection<Callable<YourResults>> tasks = new List<>(inputs.size());
for (YourInput i : inputs)
tasks.add(new YourTask(i));
ExecutorService workers = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
/* The next call blocks while the worker threads complete all tasks. */
List<Future<YourResult>> results = workers.invokeAll(tasks);
workers.shutdown();
for (Future<YourResult> f : results) {
YourResult r = f.get();
/* Do whatever it is you do with the results. */
...
}
However, I'm not sure if in TaskManager.startAll(), when I call r.go(), whether this would cause r to start running in its own thread, or within the main thread?
So my first comment is that you should make isRunning be volatile since it is being shared between threads. If the threads are not starting when it goes to true (or seem to be delayed in starting) then I suspect that's your problem. volatile provides memory synchronization between the threads so the thread that calls go() and makes a change to isRunning will be seen immediately by the thread waiting for the change.
Instead of spinning like this, I would use wait/notify:
// this synchronizes on the instance of `TaskRunner`
synchronized (this) {
// always do your wait in a while loop to protect against spurious wakeups
while (!isRunning && !Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
try {
// wait until the notify is called on this object
this.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
Then in the go() method you should do the following. stop() would be similar.
public void go() {
synchronized (this) {
isRunning = true;
this.notifyAll();
}
}
Notice that you should handle thread interrupts carefully. Test for isInterrupted() in the while running loop and re-interrupt a thread when InterruptedException is thrown is always a good pattern.
The total execution time that I'm getting seems to be very high, and despite my attempts at optimizing, nothing seems to be having any effect. Also, if I run a profiler on my project in Netbeans, it shows all the threads as sleeping.
So although the threads are mostly sleeping, they are still each looping 1000 times a second because of your Thread.sleep(1). If you increased the time sleeping (after making isRunning be volatile) they would loop less but the right mechanism is to use the wait/notify to signal the thread.
Awful solution, terrible. first I highly recommend you start reading some tutorial like [this]
Second, if threads should wait for a signal to go for some job, so why just don't you wait them!!!!!, something like this
import java.util.ArrayList;
public class TaskManager
{
//////////////////////
public volatile static Signal wait=new Signal();
//////////////////////
private ArrayList<TaskRunner> runners = new ArrayList<>();
public TaskManager()
{
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++)
{
TaskRunner r = new TaskRunner();
new Thread(r).start();
runners.add(r);
}
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
startAll();
Thread.sleep(1000);
pauseAll();
Thread.sleep(1000);
startAll();
Thread.sleep(1000);
haltAll();System.out.println("DONE!");
}catch(Exception ex){}
}
public void startAll()
{
synchronized(wait){
wait.setRun(true);;
wait.notifyAll();
}
}
public void pauseAll(){
wait.setRun(false);
}
public void haltAll(){
for(TaskRunner tx:runners){tx.halt();}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
new TaskManager();
}
}
class TaskRunner implements Runnable
{
private Thread thisThread;
private volatile boolean run=true;
public void run()
{
thisThread=Thread.currentThread();
while(run){
if(!TaskManager.wait.isRun()){
synchronized(TaskManager.wait)
{
if(!TaskManager.wait.isRun()){
System.out.println("Wait!...");
try
{
TaskManager.wait.wait();
}
catch (Exception e)
{
e.printStackTrace();
break;
}
}
}}
process();
}
}
private double r=Math.random();
private void process(){System.out.println(r);try {
Thread.sleep(10);
} catch (Exception e) {
// TODO: handle exception
}}
public void halt(){run=false;thisThread.interrupt();}
}
class Signal{
private boolean run=false;
public boolean isRun() {
return run;
}
public void setRun(boolean run) {
this.run = run;
}
}
in above sample, all runners works till the Signal run boolean is true, and simple TaskManager class set tit as false for every time it needs to pause the threads. and about the halt, it just set the shutdown(run) flag to false, and also interrupt the thread because of if thread is in wait state.
I hope I could prove your solution is like dream-on story, and also could explained enough about my solution.
have a good parallel application :)

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

Control thread through button

We require a piece of code to control a thread. For example, use three buttons like start, stop and pause, press one of them and perform the action against it. Like press start then start the thread, press stop actually stops thread and pause perform pause action respectively.
Starting a thread is simple with Thread.start(). Stopping a thread can be as simple as setting a flag that is checked asychronously in the run method, but may need to include a call to Thread.interrupt(). Pausing a thread is more problematic, but could also be done using a flag that cauases the run method to yield instead of process. Here is some (untested) code:
class MyThread extends Thread {
private final static int STATE_RUN = 0, STATE_PAUSE = 2, STATE_STOP = 3;
private int _state;
MyThread() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
}
public void run() {
int stateTemp;
synchronized(this) {
stateTemp = _state;
}
while (stateTemp != STATE_STOP) {
switch (stateTemp) {
case STATE_RUN:
// perform processing
break;
case STATE_PAUSE:
yield();
break;
}
synchronized(this) {
stateTemp = _state;
}
}
// cleanup
}
public synchronized void stop() {
_state = STATE_STOP;
// may need to call interrupt() if the processing calls blocking methods.
}
public synchronized void pause() {
_state = STATE_PAUSE;
// may need to call interrupt() if the processing calls blocking methods.
// perhaps set priority very low with setPriority(MIN_PRIORITY);
}
public synchronized void unpause() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
// perhaps restore priority with setPriority(somePriority);
// may need to re-establish any blocked calls interrupted by pause()
}
}
As you can see it can quite quickly get complex depending on what you are doing in the thread.
I would like to add on Richard's answer to address a few issues:
Needless cycles when paused
Needless extra cycle when state changed
yield() used where wait() needed
Single instance
Stopping the thread waits for the thread to finish
This is my altered code:
class MyThread extends Thread {
private final static int STATE_RUN = 0, STATE_PAUSE = 2, STATE_STOP = 3;
private int _state;
private static MyThread thread;
public static MyThread getInstance() {
if (thread == null || !thread.isAlive()) {
thread = new MyThread();
}
return thread;
}
private MyThread() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
MyThread t = MyThread.getInstance();
try {
t.start();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.pause();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.unpause();
Thread.sleep(500);
t.end();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// ignore; this is just an example
}
}
public void run() {
int i = 0;
while (_state != STATE_STOP) {
if (_state == STATE_PAUSE) {
System.out.println(this + " paused");
synchronized (this) {
try {
this.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
if (_state == STATE_STOP) {
break;
}
// this is where the actual processing happens
try {
// slow output down for this example
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// state change handled next cycle
}
System.out.println(this + " cycle " + i);
i++;
}
System.out.println(this + " finished");
// cleanup
}
public synchronized void end() {
_state = STATE_STOP;
try {
this.interrupt();
this.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public synchronized void pause() {
_state = STATE_PAUSE;
}
public synchronized void unpause() {
_state = STATE_RUN;
synchronized (this) {
this.notify();
}
}
}

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