I have a java applet. A class inside that applet is creating a thread to do some work, waiting 30 seconds for that work to complete, if its not completed in 30 secs it sets a Boolean to stop the thread. The wait and Boolean change are in a synchronized block, Is this necessary considering there is no other thread running aside from these 2.
System.out.println("Begin Start Session");
_sessionThread = new SessionThread();
_sessionThread.start();
synchronized (_sessionThread)
{
_sessionThread.wait(30000);
_sessionThread._stopStartSession = true;
}
Why couldn't I just do this instead.
System.out.println("Begin Start Session");
_sessionThread = new SessionThread();
_sessionThread.start();
_sessionThread.wait(30000);
_sessionThread._stopStartSession = true;
SessionThread run method. Invokes a JNI method to call a dll to open a program window.
public void run()
{
try
{
startExtraSession();
}
catch (Throwable t)
{
t.printStackTrace();
}
notify();
}
private native void openSessionWindow(String session_file);
private void startExtraSession()
{
final String method_name = "startExtraSession";
String title = _sessionInfo._title;
long hwnd = 0;
openSessionWindow(_sessionInfo._configFile);
try
{
//Look for a window with the predefined title name...
while ((hwnd = nativeFindWindow(title)) == 0 && !_stopStartSession)
{
Thread.sleep(500);
}
}
catch(Throwable t)
{
t.printStackTrace();
}
}
1. Is the synchronized really needed?
2. Is there a better way to accomplish this aside from using threads?
A given thread is required to own a lock on a object to be able to call wait(long) on it. This is achieved by using a synchronized block on the said object.
See J2SE specification on using wait.
Acquiring a lock/monitor in java can be done in various ways:
In a synchronized (non-static) method, the thread owns a monitor on the object referenced by this.
In a static synchronized method, the thread owns a monitor on the Class<?> descriptor for the class that defines the said method.
In a synchronized(x) block, the thread owns a monitor on x.
That lock will be released if:
You get outside of the synchronized code block (be it a method, static method, or explicit block).
You have called wait() or one of its variations (and you'll re-acquire it just before the method returns).
Both these two lists may omit specific cases but should cover at least a large portion of the typical use cases.
There's a very simple reason that you need synchronized to call wait
The synchronized makes sure that nobody is calling notify or notifyAll at the same time you're calling wait
For example: Thread 1
synchronized( obj )
{
triggerActionOnThread2();
obj.wait();
}
Thread 2 (triggered by triggerActionOnThread2)
...
synchronized( obj )
{
obj.notify();
}
If you don't have the synchronized blocks, then the notify might happen before (or during) the wait, and then the wait misses the notify, and you can hang Thread 1.
Imagine the above blocks of code without the synchronized blocks, and imagine if Thread 2 is executed all the way through the notify before the wait gets called.
BTW, I ask this very question on interviews for Java engineers when the job will involve multithreaded programming.
Can you please post SessionThread code? You cannot wait if you don't own the lock, so you need synchronized (_sessionThread) to do _sessionThread.wait(30000); Not sure what's with _sessionThread._stopStartSession = true;
If the boolean is the only shared state between the threads, declaring the boolean transient will guarantee that changes to it are seen between the threads as would a synchronization block around access to the boolean.
Related
I'm learning for OCJP and now I'm at "Thread" chapter, I have some questions about wait and notify methods. I think I understand what's happening here but I just want to make sure that I'm on the right way.I wrote this code as an example:
package threads;
public class Main {
static Object lock = new Object();
public static void main(String[] args) {
new Main().new FirstThread().start();
new Main().new SecondThread().start();
}
class FirstThread extends Thread {
public void run() {
synchronized (lock) {
lock.notify();
System.out.println("I've entered in FirstThread");
}
}
}
class SecondThread extends Thread {
public void run() {
synchronized (lock) {
try {
lock.wait();
System.out.println("I'm in the second thread");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
}
In this example the console output is I've entered in FirstThread, because the first thread starts, the notify() method is called, then the second thread starts, the wait() method is called and the String "I'm in the second thread" is not printed.
The next scenario is that I reverse the positions of new Main().new FirstThread().start(); and new Main().new SecondThread().start(); the output is
I've entered in FirstThread
I'm in the second thread
because the second thread starts, the wait() method is called, then the first thread starts, the method notify() is called, the console prints I've entered in FirstThread, the wait is released and I'm in the second thread is printed in the console.
Is that happening because the computer is so fast and the threads run sequentially? Theoretically the second start() method can be called first in my opinion is it?.
And the last question I have, is why the lock Object must be static, because if I remove the static modifier the output is always I've entered in FirstThread?
I know that static fields are loaded in JVM when the class is loaded, but I can't understand the logic of lock Object.
The threads are started sequentially, and in theory thread 1 would execute before thread 2, although it's not guaranteed (pretty sure it'll be consistent in this simple case though, as there are no real or simulated aleatory delays).
This is why when thread 2 is started slightly before, it has a chance to wait on a lock that gets notified (by thread 1) subsequently, instead of waiting forever for a lock that's already been notified once (hence, no printing).
On the static lock Object: you're binding your [First/Second]Thread nested classes to instances of Main, so the lock has to be common to both if you want them to synchronize on the same lock.
If it was an instance object, your threads would access and synchronize on a different lock, as your new Main()... idiom would get two instances of Main and subsequently two instances of lock.
"Is that happening because the computer is so fast and the threads run
sequentially? Theoretically the second start() method can be called
first in my opinion is it?. "
Yes, you can introduce a sleep() with random time, for better (unit-) test, or demonstration purpose. (Of course, the final running code should not have that sleep)
And the last question I have, is why the lock Object must be static
Principally, it does not matter whether the lock is static or not, but you have to have the possibility to access it, and it must be the same lock object. (Not one object instance for each class). In your case it must be static, otherwise it would be two different objects instances.
This is wrong because it doesn't change any shared state that the other thread can test:
synchronized (lock) {
lock.notify();
System.out.println("I've entered in FirstThread");
}
And this is wrong because it does not test anything:
synchronized (lock) {
lock.wait();
System.out.println("I'm in the second thread");
}
The problem is, lock.notify() does not do anything at all if there is no thread sleeping in lock.wait(). In your program, it is possible for the FirstThread to call notify() before the SecondThread calls wait(). The wait() call will never return in that case because the notify() call will do nothing in that case.
There's a reason why they make you enter a mutex (i.e., a synchronized block) before you can call wait() or notify(). It's because you are supposed to use the mutex to protect the shared shared state for which the waiter is waiting.
"shared state" can be as simple as a single boolean:
boolean firstThreadRan = false;
The notifier (a.k.a., "producer") does this:
synchronized(lock) {
firstThreadRan = true;
lock.notify();
...
}
The waiter (a.k.a., "consumer") does this:
synchronized(lock) {
while (! firstThreadRan) {
lock.wait();
}
...
}
The while loop is not strictly necessary in this case, but it becomes very important when more than one consumer is competing for the same event. It's good practice to always use a loop.
See https://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/guardmeth.html for a tutorial that explains wait() and notify() in more detail.
I need to know how wait() and notify() works exactly? I couldn't achieve its working by using wait() and notify() as such. Instead if I use a while() loop for wait, it works properly. How is it so? Why can't I use just wait() and notify() simply?
have you read the documentation of the wait-notify functions ?
anyway, for the best way to achieve a wait-notify mechanism, use something like this (based on this website) :
public class WaitNotifier {
private final Object monitoredObject = new Object();
private boolean wasSignalled = false;
/**
* waits till another thread has called doNotify (or if this thread was interrupted), or don't if was already
* notified before
*/
public void doWait() {
synchronized (monitoredObject) {
while (!wasSignalled) {
try {
monitoredObject.wait();
} catch (final InterruptedException e) {
break;
}
}
wasSignalled = false;
}
}
/**
* notifies the waiting thread . will notify it even if it's not waiting yet
*/
public void doNotify() {
synchronized (monitoredObject) {
wasSignalled = true;
monitoredObject.notify();
}
}
}
do note, that each instance of this class should be used only once, so you might want to change it if you need to use it multiple times.
wait() and notify() are used in synchronized block while using threads to suspend and resume where left off.
Wait immediately looses the lock, whereas Nofity will leave the lock only when the ending bracket is encountered.
You can also refer this sample example:
public class MyThread implements Runnable {
public synchronized void waitTest() {
System.out.println("Before Wait");
wait();
System.out.println("After Wait");
}
public synchronized void notifyTest() {
System.out.println("Before Notify");
notify();
System.out.println("After Notify");
}
}
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread t = new Thread(new MyThread());
t.start();
}
}
I think you are asking why does it work with while loop and does not without.
The answer is when your program calls wait() the operation system suspends your thread and activates (starts) another, and there will happen so called context switch.When OS suspend a thread it needs to save some "meta data" about your thread in order to be able to resume that thread later, PC register is what will answer your question.Basically PC (Program Counter) is a pointer to next instruction which the thread should do or is going to do, after being resumed a thread uses it to understand which instruction it was going to do when OS suspended him, and continues by that instruction (in this case, if you want to look at it by the means of Java program, the next instruction will be the next line after call to wait()).As written in "Java Concurrency in Practice"
Every call to wait is implicitly associated with a specific condition predicate. When calling wait regarding a particular
condition predicate, the caller must already hold the lock associated with the condition queue, and that lock must also
guard the state variables from which the condition predicate is composed.
Because your thread waits because some condition was not met (it should be) after returning to the method that it was suspended in, it needs to recheck that condition to see is it met yet.If condition is met it will not wait anymore, if it's not met it will call wait() again ( as it is in while loop).The important thing to know here is
PC (Program Counter) concept
and
The fact that a Thread that calls wait() on your method will not exit the method -> wait -> get resumed again -> call the method again, instead it will wait -> get resumed again -> continue from the point (instruction/line) where it was suspended (called wait())
I am fairly new to JAVA and especially concurrency, so probably/hopefully this is fairly straight forward problem.
Basically from my main thread I have this:
public void playerTurn(Move move)
{
// Wait until able to move
while( !gameRoom.game.getCurrentPlayer().getAllowMove() )
{
try {
Thread.sleep(200);
trace("waiting for player to be available");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
gameRoom.getGame().handle(move);
}
gameRoom.getGame() is on its own thread.
gameRoom.getGame().handle() is synchronized
gameRoom.game.getCurrentPlayer() is on a varible of gameRoom.getGame(), it is in the same thread
allowMoves is set to false as soon as handle(move) is called, and back to true once it has finished processing the move.
I call playerTurn() multiple times. I actually call it from a SmartFoxServer extension, as and when it receives a request, often in quick succession.
My problem is, most times it works. However SOMETIMES it is issuing multiple handle(move) calls even though allowMoves should be false. Its not waiting for it to be true again. I thought its possible that the game thread didn't have a chance to set allowMoves before another handle(move) was called. I added volatile to allowMoves, and ensured the functions on the game thread were set to synchronized. But the problem is still happening.
These are in my Game class:
synchronized public void handle(Object msg)
{
lastMessage = msg;
notify();
}
synchronized public Move move() throws InterruptedException
{
while (true)
{
allowMoves = true;
System.out.print(" waiting for move()...");
wait();
allowMoves = false;
if (lastMessage instanceof Move)
{
System.out.print(" process move()...");
Move m = (Move) lastMessage;
return m;
}
}
}
public volatile boolean allowMoves;
synchronized public boolean getAllowMoves()
{
return allowMoves;
}
As I said, I am new to this and probably a little ahead of myself (as per usual, but its kinda my style to jump into the deep end, great for a quick learning curve anyway).
Cheers for your help.
Not sure if this will help, but what if you will use AtomicBoolean instead of synchronized and volatile? It says that it is lock-free and thread-safe.
The Problem is you are using synchronized method on two different objects.
gameRoom.game.getCurrentPlayer().getAllowMove()<-- This is synchronized on
CurrentPlayer instance.
gameRoom.getGame().handle(move)<-- This is synchronized on `gameRoom.getGame()`
This is your issue. You don't need synchronized keyword for getAllowMoves since field is volatile as volatile guarantees visibility semantics.
public boolean getAllowMoves() {
return allowMoves;
}
there is the primitive, dedicated for resource management - Semaphore
you need to
create semaphore with permits set to 1
use acquire when looking for a move
use release after move is complete
so you will never face that 2 concurrent invocations of handle method appear.
Why is it that two synchronized blocks can't be executed simultaneously by two different threads in Java.
EDIT
public class JavaApplication4 {
public static void main(String[] args) {
new JavaApplication4();
}
public JavaApplication4() {
Thread t1 = new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
if (Thread.currentThread().getName().equals("Thread-1")) {
test(Thread.currentThread().getName());
} else {
test1(Thread.currentThread().getName());
}
}
};
Thread t2 = new Thread(t1);
t2.start();
t1.start();
}
public synchronized void test(String msg) {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
try {
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
System.out.println(msg);
}
}
public synchronized void test1(String msg) {
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
try {
Thread.sleep(100);
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
}
System.out.println(msg + " from test1");
}
}
}
Your statement is false. Any number of synchronized blocks can execute in parallel as long as they don't contend for the same lock.
But if your question is about blocks contending for the same lock, then it is wrong to ask "why is it so" because that is the purpose of the whole concept. Programmers need a mutual exclusion mechanism and they get it from Java through synchronized.
Finally, you may be asking "Why would we ever need to mutually exclude code segments from executing in parallel". The answer to that would be that there are many data structures that only make sense when they are organized in a certain way and when a thread updates the structure, it necessarily does it part by part, so the structure is in a "broken" state while it's doing the update. If another thread were to come along at that point and try to read the structure, or even worse, update it on its own, the whole thing would fall apart.
EDIT
I saw your example and your comments and now it's obvious what is troubling you: the semantics of the synchronized modifier of a method. That means that the method will contend for a lock on this's monitor. All synchronized methods of the same object will contend for the same lock.
That is the whole concept of synchronization, if you are taking a lock on an object (or a class), none of the other threads can access any synchronized blocks.
Example
Class A{
public void method1()
{
synchronized(this)//Block 1 taking lock on Object
{
//do something
}
}
public void method2()
{
synchronized(this)//Block 2 taking lock on Object
{
//do something
}
}
}
If one thread of an Object enters any of the synchronized blocks, all others threads of the same object will have to wait for that thread to come out of the synchronized block to enter any of the synchronized blocks. If there are N number of such blocks, only one thread of the Object can access only one block at a time. Please note my emphasis on Threads of same Object. The concept will not apply if we are dealing with threads from different objects.
Let me also add that if you are taking a lock on class, the above concept will get expanded to any object of the class. So if instead of saying synchronized(this), I would have used synchronized(A.class), code will instruct JVM, that irrespective of the Object that thread belongs to, make it wait for other thread to finish the synchronized block execution.
Edit: Please understand that when you are taking a lock (by using synchronized keyword), you are not just taking lock on one block. You are taking lock on the object. That means you are telling JVM "hey, this thread is doing some critical work which might change the state of the object (or class), so don't let any other thread do any other critical work" . Critical work, here refers to all the code in synchronized blocks which take lock on that particular Object (or class), and not only in one synchronized block.
This is not absolutely true. If you are dealing with locks on different objects then multiple threads can execute those blocks.
synchronized(obj1){
//your code here
}
synchronized(obj2){
//your code here
}
In above case one thread can execute first and second can execute second block , the point is here threads are working with different locks.
Your statement is correct if threads are dealing with same lock.Every object is associated with only one lock in java if one thread has acquired the lock and executing then other thread has to wait until first thread release that lock.Lock can be acquired by synchronized block or method.
Two Threads can execute synchronized blocks simultaneously till the point they are not locking the same object.
In case the blocks are synchronized on different object... they can execute simultaneously.
synchronized(object1){
...
}
synchronized(object2){
...
}
EDIT:
Please reason the output for http://pastebin.com/tcJT009i
In your example when you are invoking synchronized methods the lock is acquired over the same object. Try creating two objects and see.
I am trying to understand Java multi-threading constructs, and I am trying to write a simple implementation of blocking queue. Here is the code I have written:
class BlockingBoundedQueue<E>
{
#SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
BlockingBoundedQueue(int size)
{
fSize = size;
fArray = (E[]) new Object[size];
// fBlockingQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<E>(size);
}
BlockingQueue<E> fBlockingQueue;
public synchronized void put(E elem)
{
if(fCnt==fSize-1)
{
try
{
// Should I be waiting/locking on the shared array instead ? how ?
wait();
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
throw new RuntimeException("Waiting thread was interrupted during put with msg:",e);
}
}
else
{
fArray[fCnt++]=elem;
//How to notify threads waiting during take()
}
}
public synchronized E take()
{
if(fCnt==0)
{
try
{
// Should I be waiting/locking on the shared array instead ? how ?
wait();
}
catch (InterruptedException e)
{
throw new RuntimeException("Waiting thread was interrupted during take with msg:",e);
}
}
return fArray[fCnt--];
//How to notify threads waiting during put()
}
private int fCnt;
private int fSize;
private E[] fArray;
}
I want to notify threads waiting in Take() from put() and vice versa. Can someone please help me with the correct way of doing this.
I checked the java.utils implementation and it uses Condition and ReentrantLocks which are a little complex for me at this stage. I am okay of not being completely robust[but correct] for the sake of simplicity for now.
Thanks !
The short answer is, call notifyAll() where you have the comments //How to notify threads waiting during take()
Now for the more complete answer...
The reference to read is : Java Concurrency in Practice. The answer to your question is in there.
However, to briefly answer your question: in Java, threads synchronize by locking on the same object and using wait() and notify() to safely change state. The typical simplified flow is:
Thread A obtains a lock by entering a synchronized block on a lock object
Thread A checks some condition in a loop, if not "OK to go" call thread.wait(), which is a blocking call that "releases" the lock so other code synchronized on the same lock object can proceed
Thread B obtains the same lock and may do something that changes the condition thread A is waiting for. When it calls notifyAll(), thread A will wake up and recheck the condition and (may) proceed
Some things to remember about synchronization are:
it is about keeping state of objects consistent by making changes to state atomic. "Atomic" means the entire change (e.g. to multiple fields) is guaranteed to complete (no partial, and therefore inconsistent, changes)
it is cooperative - code synchronized on a given lock object has in common the state that is being changed and the conditions that allow that state change - you wait and notify about the same "subject". Each part of state should be guarded by its own lock object - usually a private field, e.g. private Object lock = new Object(); would be fine
methods that are synchronized use this as the lock object - doing this is easy but potentially expensive, because you are locking for every call, instead of just when you need to
static methods that are synchronized use the Class object as the lock object