In my java application, I have a string (MySingleton.getInstance().myString) which gets updated based on user actions. In this application, there is a TCP server which sends the value of this string to all connected clients whenever the value of the string changes.
Each client socket gets its own thread. Here is the thread code.
public void run() {
try {
PrintStream printStream = new PrintStream(hostThreadSocket.getOutputStream(), true);
while (true) {
synchronized (MySingleton.getInstance()) {
printStream.println(MySingleton.getInstance().myString);
try {
MySingleton.getInstance().wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
And here is the code which writes to MySingleton.getInstance().myString.
public void updateString(String newString) {
synchronized (MySingleton.getInstance()) {
MySingleton.getInstance().myString = newString;
MySingleton.getInstance().notifyAll();
}
}
I am not familiar with synchronization in java so I am not much confident about my code. Can anybody notice anything wrong?
It should be fine, provided that MySingleton.getInstance() always returns the same object.
If the method call returns different objects at different points in time, then you may get exceptions due to synchronizing on one instance, and then calling wait or notify on a different instance. In addition, there may be memory hazards because you are not synchronizing on the object that you are accessing / updating.
Related
My Question is related to the Working of two thread at a time,suppose one thread write a file and release the resource to another thread for reading the same file and vice versa.But the communication is not happening properly. here is the code snippet
Thread 1
public void run() {
for(int i=1;i<10;i++) {
System.out.println(i+"i");
System.out.println("writing the file");
try {
synchronized (new A()) {
wait();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
Thread 2
public void run() {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e1) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e1.printStackTrace();
}
for(int j=1;j<10;j++) {
System.out.println(j+"j");
System.out.println("reading the file");
synchronized (new B()) {
notifyAll();
}
}
synchronization happens on a particular monitor object.
In your code you create new monitors for each synchronization block, with the new operator.
So you will never lock the access to this fragment of code because no other monitor can be taken by another thread.
This is the classic "producer consumer/reader writer" concurrency problem. There are several ways you can go about this - Some being slightly outdated however easier to understand for a beginner like yourself.
In order for 2 or more threads to be dependent on each other starting or finishing, there must be a concept of a shared object or variable which can be changed by each thread, to signal the other threads that the current one is finished. It is important that only one thread is changing the shared object at any one time (Also known as the critical section). In this case, you could use some Java 8 concurrency features to synchronise these 2 threads. Heres a simple example below using some Java 8 Concurrency syntax, namely the ReadWriteLock, which has been created especially for this use case.
public class ReaderWriterProblem {
private ReentrantReadWriteLock theLock = new ReentrantReadWriteLock(true);
public static void main(String[] args) {
ReaderWriterProblem rwProblem = new ReaderWriterProblem();
Reader reader1 = new Reader(theLock);
Writer writer1 = new Writer(theLock);
new Thread(reader1).start();
new Thread(writer1).start();
}
private class Reader implements Runnable {
private ReentrantReadWriteLock theLock;
public Reader(ReentrantReadWriteLock theLock) {
this.theLock = theLock;
}
public void run() {
try {
theLock.readLock().lock();
System.out.println("Currently Reading!");
try {
Thread.sleep(2000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
} finally {
theLock.readLock().unlock();
}
}
}
private class Writer implements Runnable {
private ReentrantReadWriteLock theLock;
public Writer(ReentrantReadWriteLock theLock) {
this.theLock = theLock
}
public void run() {
try {
theLock.writeLock().lock();
System.out.println("Currently Writing!");
try {
Thread.sleep(4000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
} finally {
theLock.writeLock().unlock();
}
}
}
}
This is a very basic example but the ReadWriteLock actually comes with built in support for one writer at any time and many readers. So when a thread holds the write Lock, no other thread can write at the same time, however several threads can hold the read lock at one time.
Other potential solutions to this problem include semaphores and busy wait, which are worth having a look at online.
SHORT ANSWER to why your question was wrong - You need to synchronise shared objects and variables, not the instances of classes that are executing the concurrent statements. Hope this helps you understand a little more. Notice how the lock is shared between the reader and writer.
Would it be appropriate to use a thread to get objects received by a socket's InputStream and then add them to a ConcurrentLinkedQueue so that they can be accessed from the main thread without blocking at the poll-input loop?
private Queue<Packet> packetQueue = new ConcurrentLinkedQueue<Packet>();
private ObjectInputStream fromServer; //this is the input stream of the server
public void startListening()
{
Thread listeningThread = new Thread()
{
public void run()
{
while(isConnected()) //check if the socket is connected to anything
{
try {
packetQueue.offer((Packet) fromServer.readObject()); //add packet to queue
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
};
listeningThread.start(); //start the thread
}
public Packet getNextPacket()
{
return packetQueue.poll(); //get the next packet in the queue
}
It depends on what you need to do with this object that you'll use in main thread.
If need sometime to process it or if it'll be used many times than you can put it in a queue or in another class that will hold this object for you, but if the time you need to process it is low you and you don't need this object further after processing you don't really need to use a queue.
About using the ConcurrentQueue depends too, you need order? you need guarantee synchronism between the read and the write?
You can use Asynchronous socket too to handle many clients and process in the same thread or even getting the objects from them and throwing in a queue to further process.
But "be appropriate" is hard to answer because depends on what you need to do with this objects and how you'll handle it.
I'm facing this issue working with a ServerSocket inside one of my bundles, let's just call it: FooBundle.
This FooBundle has, among others, a SocketListener.java class. This class is a Thread and to make a little overview of it, I'll paste some pseudocode:
public class SocketListener implements Runnable{
ServerSocket providerSocket;
Socket connection = null;
private boolean closeIt = false;
public void run() {
try {
//Create the server socket
providerSocket = new ServerSocket(41000, 10);
} catch (IOException e1) {
//catching the exception....
}
while(!closeIt){
try{
connection = providerSocket.accept();
in = new Scanner(new InputStreamReader(onnection.getInputStream()));
while(in.hasNext() !=false)
message = message + " "+in.next();
// bla bla bla...
} catch (IOException e) {
//bla bla...
}
finally{
try{
if (message.equalsIgnoreCase("bye"))
providerSocket.close();
closeIt = true;
}
catch(IOException ioException){
//........
}
}
As you can see, it's a simple thread that waits for a connection until the message it receives from one of the SocketClients is "bye".
This is the problem I'm facing right now: When the Bundle is stopped, I do need to restart the entire OSGi framework : If I try to restart the bundle, a java.net.BindException message is thrown: "Address already in use". So, I stopped the bundle but the socket hasn't been closed.
In OSGi, you need to take care of what the stop() method inside the Activator must include, but I just can't pass any reference of an anonymous thread to the Activator.
Imagine that this is my class diagram inside the bundle:
**FooBundle**
|__FooBundleActivator
|__FooImpl
|__SocketListener (thread)
The SocketListener thread is called from the FooImpl class as an anonymous thread.
My question is: Is there any appropiate method to have such control of anonymous threads and specifically in my case, of non-closing socket ports, inside the OSGi paradigm?
Thanks in advance.
If your bundle is told to stop then assume the guy doing the stopping knows what he is doing. Yes, your protocol expects the 'bye' but shit happens, any protocol that has problems with these things is too fragile for the real world. In general, all your tasks in OSGi should have a life cycle. So this would be my code (using DS instead of activators).
#Component
public class ProtocolServer extends Thread {
volatile ServerSocket server;
volatile Socket connection;
public ProtocolServer() {
super("Protocol Server on 4100"); // to identify the thread
}
#Activate void activate() {
setDaemon(true);
start();
}
#Deactivate void deactivate() {
interrupt();
// best effort close (even if null)
try { server.close(); } catch(Exception e) {}
try { connection.close(); } catch(Exception e) {}
join(10000); // waits 10 secs until thread exits
}
public void run() {
// loop for active component
while( !isInterrupted() )
try {
doServer();
} catch( Exception e) {
log(e);
// bad error, accept failed or bind failed
// or server socket was closed. If we should remain
// active, sleep to prevent overloading the
// system by trying too often, so sleep
if ( !isInterrupted() )
try { Thread.sleep(5000); } catch(Exception e) {}
}
}
private void doServer() throws Exception {
server = new ServerSocket(4100)
try {
while( !isInterrupted() )
doConnection(server);
} finally {
server.close();
}
}
private void doConnection(ServerSocket server) throws Exception {
connection = server.accept();
try {
doMessages(connection);
// the pseudo code exits here, but that seems
// kind of weird? If desired, interrupt
// this object, this will exit the thread
} catch( Exception e) {
log(e); // the connection failed, is not uncommon
} finally {
connection.close();
connection = null;
}
}
private void doMessages(Socket connection) {
MyScanner s = new MyScanner(socket);
String msg;
while( !isInterrupted() && !"bye".equals( msg=s.getMessage()))
process(msg);
}
}
One important design consideration in OSGi is that the components keep working even if there are failures. In a network you often have transient errors that go away on their own. Even if they don't it is desirable that the server keeps on trying while you fix the problem. Your pseudo code would be a nightmare in practice since it would disappear on any error. Any system with multiple such components tends to becomes quickly unstable.
One thing that also surprised me is that you only support one connection at a time. In general it is better to not limit this and handle the messages in their own thread. In that case, you must ensure that each created handler for a connection is also closed appropriately.
Instantiate the ServerSocket outside (probably in the Activator) and pass it to the SocketListener via a constructor. You can call serverSocket.stop() in the stop function of the Activator than.
In case you call ServerSocket.stop() a SocketException will be thrown that is a subclass of IOException. Please think of handling IOException in the while iteration in the way that it will stop executing the iteration for sure.
You need to close that listening socket regardless of the message before exiting the thread function. Then what should really make a difference for you is calling setReuseAddress(true) on that socket to allow binding the port while old connection hangs in the timeout state.
And, please please please, use better indentation technique in your code ...
I know this has been discussed some times before, but I can't find an appropriate solution for my problem. I want to run a ServerSocket thread in the background, listening to the specified port. It's working actually, but only once. Seems that the port the server is listening to is never closed correctly and still active when I try to restart (O don't restart the thread itself). Can some tell why it is not working correctly? Thanks in advance for any help...!
edit:
I have same problem on the client side. I have a sender thread and also that one cannot not be stopped. What is the best way to do that?
The ClientConnector is just a class which connects to the server port and sends the data.
It's not a thread or anything like that.
That's my sender class:
private class InternalCamSender extends Thread {
private int sendInterval = 500; // default 500 ms
private ClientConnector clientConn = null;
public InternalCamSender() {
this.sendInterval = getSendingInterval();
this.clientConn = new ClientConnector();
}
#Override
public void run() {
while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
clientConn.sendCamPdu(CodingScheme.BER, createNewPDU());
try {
Thread.sleep(sendInterval);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
}
And I try to handle it's behaviour like that:
if(jButton_startSending.getText().equals(STARTSENDING)) {
new Thread() {
public void run() {
iSender = new InternalCamSender();
iSender.start();
jButton_startSending.setText(STOPSENDING);
}
}.start();
} else {
new Thread() {
public void run() {
if(iSender.isAlive()) {
iSender.interrupt();
try {
iSender.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
iSender = null;
jButton_startSending.setText(STARTSENDING);
}
}.start();
}
Somehow I cannot stop the InternalCamSender like that. I tried with a volatile boolean before, was the same. I read the http://download.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/guide/misc/threadPrimitiveDeprecation.html page and tried also the example What should I use instead of Thread.stop? but even that was not stopping the thread? I am lost.
Any ideas?
edit:
found the answer for my clinet sending problem here http://www.petanews.de/code-snippets/java/java-threads-sauber-beenden-ohne-stop/
even i don't know why that is working. I am sure I tried that way before.
Problem solved!
You should close your resources (the streams and socket) in a finally block, rather than a catch block - this way the resources are always closed, whether an exception is caught or not.
It's also a bad practice to call System.exit() from within a catch block or within a thread - you are forcibly shutting down the whole JVM on any instance of an error. This is likely the cause of your problem with the server socket as well - whenever any exception is encountered with reading/closing the streams, you are exiting the JVM before you have a chance to close the server socket.
I'm using a thread that is continuously reading from a queue.
Something like:
public void run() {
Object obj;
while(true) {
synchronized(objectsQueue) {
if(objectesQueue.isEmpty()) {
try {
objectesQueue.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
obj = objectesQueue.poll();
}
}
// Do something with the Object obj
}
}
What is the best way to stop this thread?
I see two options:
1 - Since Thread.stop() is deprecated, I can implement a stopThisThread() method that uses a n atomic check-condition variable.
2 - Send a Death Event object or something like that to the queue. When the thread fetches a death event, it exits.
I prefer the 1st way, however, I don't know when to call the stopThisThread() method, as something might be on it's way to the queue and the stop signal can arrive first (not desirable).
Any suggestions?
The DeathEvent (or as it is often call, "poison pill") approach works well if you need to complete all of the work on the queue before shutting down. The problem is that this could take a long time.
If you want to stop as soon as possible, I suggest you do this
BlockingQueue<O> queue = ...
...
public void run() {
try {
// The following test is necessary to get fast interrupts. If
// it is replaced with 'true', the queue will be drained before
// the interrupt is noticed. (Thanks Tim)
while (!Thread.interrupted()) {
O obj = queue.take();
doSomething(obj);
}
} catch (InterruptedException ex) {
// We are done.
}
}
To stop the thread t that instantiated with that run method, simply call t.interrupt();.
If you compare the code above with other answers, you will notice how using a BlockingQueue and Thread.interrupt() simplifies the solution.
I would also claim that an extra stop flag is unnecessary, and in the big picture, potentially harmful. A well-behaved worker thread should respect an interrupt. An unexpected interrupt simply means that the worker is being run in a context that the original programmer did not anticipate. The best thing is if the worker to does what it is told to do ... i.e. it should stop ... whether or not this fits with the original programmer's conception.
Why not use a scheduler which you simply can stop when required? The standard scheduler supports repeated scheduling which also waits for the worker thread to finish before rescheduling a new run.
ScheduledExecutorService service = Executors.newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor();
service.scheduleWithFixedDelay(myThread, 1, 10, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
this sample would run your thread with a delay of 10 sec, that means when one run finishes, it restarts it 10 seconds later. And instead of having to reinvent the wheel you get
service.shutdown()
the while(true) is not necessary anymore.
ScheduledExecutorService Javadoc
In your reader thread have a boolean variable stop. When you wish for this thread to stop set thius to true and interrupt the thread. Within the reader thread when safe (when you don't have an unprocessed object) check the status of the stop variable and return out of the loop if set. as per below.
public class readerThread extends Thread{
private volitile boolean stop = false;
public void stopSoon(){
stop = true;
this.interrupt();
}
public void run() {
Object obj;
while(true) {
if(stop){
return;
}
synchronized(objectsQueue) {
if(objectesQueue.isEmpty()) {
try {
objectesQueue.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
if(stop){
return;
}
obj = objectesQueue.poll();
// Do something with the Object obj
}
}
}
}
public class OtherClass{
ThreadReader reader;
private void start(){
reader = ...;
reader.start();
}
private void stop(){
reader.stopSoon();
reader.join(); // Wait for thread to stop if nessasery.
}
}
Approach 1 is the preferred one.
Simply set a volatile stop field to true and call interrupt() on the running thread. This will force any I/O methods that wait to return with an InterruptedException (and if your library is written correctly this will be handled gracefully).
I think your two cases actually exhibit the same potential behavior. For the second case consider Thread A adds the DeathEvent after which Thread B adds a FooEvent. When your job Thread receives the DeathEvent there is still a FooEvent behind it, which is the same scenario you are describing in Option 1, unless you try to clear the queue before returning, but then you are essentially keeping the thread alive, when what you are trying to do is stop it.
I agree with you that the first option is more desirable. A potential solution would depend on how your queue is populated. If it is a part of your work thread class you could have your stopThisThread() method set a flag that would return an appropriate value (or throw Exception) from the enqueuing call i.e.:
MyThread extends Thread{
boolean running = true;
public void run(){
while(running){
try{
//process queue...
}catch(InterruptedExcpetion e){
...
}
}
}
public void stopThisThread(){
running = false;
interrupt();
}
public boolean enqueue(Object o){
if(!running){
return false;
OR
throw new ThreadNotRunningException();
}
queue.add(o);
return true;
}
}
It would then be the responsibility of the object attempting to enqueue the Event to deal with it appropriately, but at the least it will know that the event is not in the queue, and will not be processed.
I usually put a flag in the class that has the Thread in it and in my Thread code I would do. (NOTE: Instead of while(true) I do while(flag))
Then create a method in the class to set the flag to false;
private volatile bool flag = true;
public void stopThread()
{
flag = false;
}
public void run() {
Object obj;
while(flag) {
synchronized(objectsQueue) {
if(objectesQueue.isEmpty()) {
try {
objectesQueue.wait();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
obj = objectesQueue.poll();
}
}
// Do something with the Object obj
}
}