synchronize two threads in java - java

I have two threads in my java programme, one is main thread and other thread is thread A which is spawned in main thread. now i want main thread to start thread A and wait till thread A has executed some part of its code in run method and thread A should suspend itself. main thread should then start running, run few lines of code and then again thread A should start from where it has stopped and vice versa. this should happen for n number of times.
I am trying as belows:
Thread A class:
public class ThreadA implements Runnable {
boolean suspended = false;
boolean stopped = false;
synchronized void stop() {
stopped = true;
suspended = false;
notify();
}
synchronized void suspend() {
suspended = true;
}
synchronized void resume() {
suspended = false;
notify();
}
void job() throws InterruptedException {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
synchronized (this) {
System.out.println("performing job.");
suspend();
while (suspended) {
notify();
suspended = false;
}
}
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
job();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}
MainThread:
public class MainThread {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
ThreadA a1=new ThreadA();
Thread t1=new Thread(a1);
synchronized (t1) {
t1.start();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
t1.wait();
System.out.println("perform some action");
a1.resume();
}
}
}
}
Expected output:
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
Actual output:
performing job.
performing job.
performing job.
performing job.
performing job.
perform some action
I don't know why the whole for loop is getting executed in Thread A even when i've issued a notify() signal in job method.

You have two bugs here.
The first is that you are synchronizing and notifying different objects. Try this modified main, I changed synchronized (t1) to synchronized (a1) and t1.wait() to a1.wait().
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
ThreadA a1=new ThreadA();
Thread t1=new Thread(a1);
synchronized (a1) { // CHANGED FROM t1 to a1
t1.start();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
a1.wait(); // CHANGED FROM t1 to a1
System.out.println("perform some action");
a1.resume();
}
}
}
The second bug is in the job() method, it calls notify() but not wait(). Here is a fixed version:
void job() throws InterruptedException {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
synchronized (this) {
System.out.println("performing job.");
suspend();
while (suspended) {
notify();
suspended = false;
wait(); // ADDED
}
}
}
The output from my test run is
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action
performing job.
perform some action

Here is more simplified way
public class TwoThread {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
ThreadA a1 = new ThreadA();
Thread t1 = new Thread(a1);
synchronized (a1) {
t1.start();
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++) {
a1.wait();
System.out.println("perform some action " + i);
a1.notify();
}
}
}
}
public class ThreadA implements Runnable {
boolean suspended = false;
boolean stopped = false;
void job() throws InterruptedException {
for (int i = 0; i < 5; i++)
synchronized (this) {
System.out.println("performing job. " + i);
notify();
wait();
}
}
public void run() {
try {
job();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

To communicate between two threads only:
You do not need synchronized
You do not need locks
You do not need CAS (Compare And Swap). (Neither weak or strong)
You do not need setOpaque, setVolative nor setRelease
You just need VarHandle barrier (in Java).
Java VarHandle
The only requirement is ordered memory access
Here is a reasonably good article.
Synchronizing without Locks and Concurrent Data
Structures
In my daily work, I use variants of Dekker's and Peterson's algorithm
for asynchronous multi-threaded processing of web requests, sharing connection pools and collecting logs from cloud application with minor impact on performance
compared to the single thread un-contended performance.
Occasionally, I have to use setOpaque and getOpaque,
with VarHandle.loadLoadFence() and VarHandle.storeStoreFence()
to ensure ordered memory access and that is all you would need.
In my view the weak CAS is the furthers I would go,
as anything else I see as a violation of the multi-core CPU architecture.
However, unless you have an in-depth understanding of the actual
hardware that you are using and memory ordering constructs
used at the micro-instruction level, I suggest you use
standard Java concurrent locks, as they are the best
and optimal for general-purpose solutions.
To achieve, 10 x performance boost over the conventional CAS algorithms,
you need to make very stable layout of all shared objects in memory
and to strictly define which threads can read
and which can write to each variable and in which order.
You will need to consider the side effect on the CPU cache
of all memory loads and stores, and then to get these
to work in your advantage on the specific platform
that you are targeting. You will end up with
quite complex algorithms, but unbeatable performance.
You should explore the LMAX Disruptor library
as it has the open source library that implements many of these concepts
like ring-buffers and single thread can write to each variable.
LMAX Disruptor User Guide
Yet, I still see this as the the conservative approach to concurrency.
My current standard is to have algorithm that tolerate racing
and discard data and repeat processing if they detect racing condition.
I use the state embeded counters, indexes, flags and hashes,
to detect thread collision and chose thread that will give up
and use another memory structure for its operation.
However, due to thread focused memory structures and
optimized reference sharing these occur rarely (like one in 1 million)
Yet, if you have good understanding of CPU cache operations
and any specialized platform instruction you can get CPU
cache to work in your advantage and execute reads and writes,
and sharing of cache lines between cores, as a side effect
of your instructions without you having to explicitly issue
commands to do this.
BTW, the NodeJS (V8) engine was an attempt to minimize contention and locking by having a single thread event loop to distribute events to all other I/O and utility library threads, so they do not have to compete between themselves for access to events and shared memory.
As you can see, NodeJS had great success,
and if we are talking about the special purpose algorithms
you can take it even further.
NodeJS architecture
Happy reading.

There is little reason to synchronize multiple threads if one threads waits while another does its thing. One could use Executors to get the same result with less work and still got the feeling that one is playing with the threads.
public class Main {
public static void main(String[] args) {
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor();
for(int i = 0; i<5;i++) {
executor.submit(new PrintTask("performing job."));
executor.submit(new PrintTask("perform some action"));
}
executor.shutdown();
}
private static class PrintTask implements Runnable {
private String string;
public PrintTask(String string) {
this.string = string;
}
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println(string);
}
}
}

Related

My java unit test failed if there is a call to wait method inside a synchronized method

I am learning multi-threads programming in java recently. And I don't understand why the following test case will fail. Any explanation will be much appreciated.
Here is MyCounter.java.
public class MyCounter {
private int count;
public synchronized void incrementSynchronized() throws InterruptedException {
int temp = count;
wait(100); // <-----
count = temp + 1;
}
public int getCount() {
return count;
}
}
This is my unit test class.
public class MyCounterTest {
#Test
public void testSummationWithConcurrency() throws InterruptedException {
int numberOfThreads = 100;
ExecutorService service = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(10);
CountDownLatch latch = new CountDownLatch(numberOfThreads);
MyCounter counter = new MyCounter();
for (int i = 0; i < numberOfThreads; i++) {
service.submit(() -> {
try {
counter.incrementSynchronized();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
latch.countDown();
});
}
latch.await();
assertEquals(numberOfThreads, counter.getCount());
}
}
But if I remove wait(100) from the synchronized method incrementSynchronized, the test will succeed. I don't understand why wait(100) will affect the result.
Solomons suggestion to use sleep is a good one. If you use sleep instead of wait, you should see the test pass.
Using wait causes the thread to relinquish the lock, allowing other threads to proceed and overwrite the value in count. When the thread's wait times out, it acquires the lock again, then writes a value to count that may be stale by now.
The typical usage of wait is when your thread can't do anything useful until some condition is met. Some other thread eventually satisfies that condition and a notification gets sent that will inform the thread it can resume work. In the meantime, since there is nothing useful the thread can do, it releases the lock it is holding (because other threads need the lock in order to make progress meeting the condition that the thread is waiting for) and goes dormant.
Sleep doesn't release the lock so there won't be interference from other threads. For either the sleeping case or the case where you delete the wait call, the lock is held for the duration of the operation, nothing else can change count, so it is threadsafe.
Be aware that in real life, outside of learning exercises, sleeping with a lock held is usually not a great idea. You want to minimize the time that a task holds a lock so you can get more throughput. Threads denying each other the use of a lock is not helpful.
Also be aware that getCount needs to be synchronized as well, since it is reading a value written by another thread.

Is this synchronized block need?

Is the synchronized block on System.out.println(number); need the following code?
import java.util.concurrent.CountDownLatch;
public class Main {
private static final Object LOCK = new Object();
private static long number = 0L;
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
CountDownLatch doneSignal = new CountDownLatch(10);
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
Worker worker = new Worker(doneSignal);
worker.start();
}
doneSignal.await();
synchronized (LOCK) { // Is this synchronized block need?
System.out.println(number);
}
}
private static class Worker extends Thread {
private final CountDownLatch doneSignal;
private Worker(CountDownLatch doneSignal) {
this.doneSignal = doneSignal;
}
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (LOCK) {
number += 1;
}
doneSignal.countDown();
}
}
}
I think it's need because there is a possibility to read the cached value.
But some person say that:
It's unnecessary.
Because when the main thread reads the variable number, all of worker thread has done the write operation in memory of variable number.
doneSignal.await() is a blocking call, so your main() will only proceed when all your Worker threads have called doneSignal.countDown(), making it reach 0, which is what makes the await() method return.
There is no point adding that synchronized block before the System.out.println(), all your threads are already done at that point.
Consider using an AtomicInteger for number instead of synchronizing against a lock to call += 1.
It is not necessary:
CountDownLatch doneSignal = new CountDownLatch(10);
for (int i = 0; i < 10; i++) {
Worker worker = new Worker(doneSignal);
worker.start();
}
doneSignal.await();
// here the only thread running is the main thread
Just before dying each thread countDown the countDownLatch
#Override
public void run() {
synchronized (LOCK) {
number += 1;
}
doneSignal.countDown();
}
Only when the 10 thread finish their job the doneSignal.await(); line will be surpass.
It is not necessary because you are waiting for "done" signal. That flush memory in a way that all values from the waited thread become visible to main thread.
However you can test that easily, make inside the run method a computation that takes several (millions) steps and don't get optimized by the compiler, if you see a value different than from the final value that you expect then your final value was not already visible to main thread. Of course here the critical part is to make sure the computation doesn't get optimized so a simple "increment" is likely to get optimized. This in general is usefull to test concurrency where you are not sure if you have correct memory barriers so it may turn usefull to you later.
synchronized is not needed around System.out.println(number);, but not because the PrintWriter.println() implementations are internally synchronized or because by the time doneSignal.await() unblocks all the worker threads have finished.
synchronized is not needed because there's a happens-before edge between everything before each call to doneSignal.countDown and the completion of doneSignal.await(). This guarantees that you'll successfully see the correct value of number.
Needed
No.
However, as there is no (documented) guarantee that there will not be any interleaving it is possible to find log entries interleaved.
System.out.println("ABC");
System.out.println("123");
could print:
AB1
23C
Worthwhile
Almost certainly not. Most JVMs will implement println with a lock open JDK does.
Edge case
As suggested by #DimitarDimitrov, there is one further possible use for that lock and it is to ensure a memory barrier is crossed befor accessing number. If that is the concern then you do not need to lock, all you need to do is make number volatile.
private static volatile long number = 0L;

Are unsynchronized reads (combined with synchronized writes) eventually consistent

I have a use case with many writer threads and a single reader thread. The data being written is an event counter which is being read by a display thread.
The counter only ever increases and the display is intended for humans, so the exact point-in-time value is not critical. For this purpose, I would consider a solution to be correct as long as:
The value seen by the reader thread never decreases.
Reads are eventually consistent. After a certain amount of time without any writes, all reads will return the exact value.
Assuming writers are properly synchronized with each other, is it necessary to synchronize the reader thread with the writers in order to guarantee correctness, as defined above?
A simplified example. Would this be correct, as defined above?
public class Eventual {
private static class Counter {
private int count = 0;
private Lock writeLock = new ReentrantLock();
// Unsynchronized reads
public int getCount() {
return count;
}
// Synchronized writes
public void increment() {
writeLock.lock();
try {
count++;
} finally {
writeLock.unlock();
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
List<Thread> contentiousThreads = new ArrayList<>();
final Counter sharedCounter = new Counter();
// 5 synchronized writer threads
for(int i = 0; i < 5; ++i) {
contentiousThreads.add(new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
for(int i = 0; i < 20_000; ++i) {
sharedCounter.increment();
safeSleep(1);
}
}
}));
}
// 1 unsynchronized reader thread
contentiousThreads.add(new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
for(int i = 0; i < 30; ++i) {
// This value should:
// +Never decrease
// +Reach 100,000 if we are eventually consistent.
System.out.println("Count: " + sharedCounter.getCount());
safeSleep(1000);
}
}
}));
contentiousThreads.stream().forEach(t -> t.start());
// Just cleaning up...
// For the question, assume readers/writers run indefinitely
try {
for(Thread t : contentiousThreads) {
t.join();
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
private static void safeSleep(int ms) {
try {
Thread.sleep(ms);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
//Don't care about error handling for now.
}
}
}
There is no guarantee that the readers would ever see an update to the count. A simple fix is to make count volatile.
As noted in another answer, in your current example, the "Final Count" will be correct because the main thread is joining the writer threads (thus establishing a happens-before relationship). however, your reader thread is never guaranteed to see any update to the count.
JTahlborn is correct, +1 from me. I was rushing and misread the question, I was assuming wrongly that the reader thread was the main thread.
The main thread can display the final count correctly due to the happens-before relationship:
All actions in a thread happen-before any other thread successfully returns from a join on that thread.
Once the main thread has joined to all the writers then the counter's updated value is visible. However, there is no happens-before relationship forcing the reader's view to get updated, you are at the mercy of the JVM implementation. There is no promise in the JLS about values getting visible if enough time passes, it is left open to the implementation. The counter value could get cached and the reader could possibly not see any updates whatsoever.
Testing this on one platform gives no assurance of what other platforms will do, so don't think this is OK just because the test passes on your PC. How many of us develop on the same platform we deploy to?
Using volatile on the counter or using AtomicInteger would be good fixes. Using AtomicInteger would allow removing the locks from the writer thread. Using volatile without locking would be OK only in a case where there is just one writer, when two or more writers are present then ++ or += not being threadsafe will be an issue. Using an Atomic class is a better choice.
(Btw eating the InterruptedException isn't "safe", it just makes the thread unresponsive to interruption, which happens when your program asks the thread to finish early.)

Is a notify signalled on thread finish? Why does this code sample work?

I am looking in some puzzles for threads and I can't figure out why the following consistently prints 999999:
class Job extends Thread {
private Integer number = 0;
public void run() {
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000; i++) {
number++;
}
}
public Integer getNumber() {
return number;
}
}
public class Test {
public static void main(String[] args)
throws InterruptedException {
Job thread = new Job();
thread.start();
synchronized (thread) {
thread.wait();
}
System.out.println(thread.getNumber());
}
}
There is no notify on the same lock (and spurious wakeup seem to be ignored).
If a thread finishes does a notify get signalled or something?
How come main prints the result and not get "stuck" waiting?
In the Javadoc for Java 7 Thread.join(long)
This implementation uses a loop of this.wait calls conditioned on this.isAlive. As a thread terminates the this.notifyAll method is invoked. It is recommended that applications not use wait, notify, or notifyAll on Thread instances.
Using a Thread directly this way is considered bad practical. Note: wait() could end for any number of reasons, possibly spuriously.
Based on a puzzler related to #Voo's comment. The point is you shouldn't play with the internal behaviour of Thread as this is more likely to lead to confusion.
public static String getName() {
return "MyProgram";
}
public static void main(String... args) {
new Thread() {
public void run() {
System.out.println("My program is " + getName());
}
}.start();
}
What does this program print?
For clarification, I have modified your code to this:
Job thread = new Job();
thread.start();
final Object lock = new Object();
synchronized (lock) { lock.wait(); }
System.out.println(thread.getNumber());
Now it blocks. That's a first-hand confirmation of what #Nitram has explained in his answer. If you care to have a look at the Thread implementation code, it will be quite obvious why this is the observed behavior.
NOTE: This answer has been edited extensively.
The reason for this behaviour is, that "someone" is calling notifyAll internally. This "someone" is the JVM itself as you can "see" in the C sources here:
http://hg.openjdk.java.net/jdk7/hotspot/hotspot/file/f95d63e2154a/src/share/vm/runtime/thread.cpp
In line 1531 the method ensure_join calls notifyAll. This is the counterpart to the wait calls in java.lang.Thread#join (as noted by Marko and others).
ensure_join in turn is called in line 1664 in the method JavaThread::exit.
Since this is "internal bookkeeping" nobody should rely on this behaviour.
Simply put a Thread notifies all waiting threads once the execution of the threads ends. Its not the proposed why to do this, but it works. To synchronize on the end of a thread rather use Thread.join.
A thread object is automatically notified when the thread finishes, that's why the main thread doesn't get stuck.
Well....notify serves purpose of premature notifying to the threads waiting on the locked object. if you don't use Notify ,then certainly when it finishes it releases lock.
So that is equivalent to notify
no it's not..Consider the situation below.
class Job extends Thread {
private Integer number = 0;
public void run() {
synchronized(this) {
for (int i = 1; i < 1000000; i++) {
number++;
}
notify(); //releases lock here and your main thread continues
do sumthing...
do sumthing...
}
}
public Integer getNumber() {
return number;
}
}
if you don't use notify() ...lock will be released only after you do all your sumthings..

Should you synchronize the run method? Why or why not?

I have always thought that synchronizing the run method in a java class which implements Runnable is redundant. I am trying to figure out why people do this:
public class ThreadedClass implements Runnable{
//other stuff
public synchronized void run(){
while(true)
//do some stuff in a thread
}
}
}
It seems redundant and unnecessary since they are obtaining the object's lock for another thread. Or rather, they are making explicit that only one thread has access to the run() method. But since its the run method, isn't it itself its own thread? Therefore, only it can access itself and it doesn't need a separate locking mechanism?
I found a suggestion online that by synchronizing the run method you could potentially create a de-facto thread queue for instance by doing this:
public void createThreadQueue(){
ThreadedClass a = new ThreadedClass();
new Thread(a, "First one").start();
new Thread(a, "Second one, waiting on the first one").start();
new Thread(a, "Third one, waiting on the other two...").start();
}
I would never do that personally, but it lends to the question of why anyone would synchronize the run method. Any ideas why or why not one should synchronize the run method?
Synchronizing the run() method of a Runnable is completely pointless unless you want to share the Runnable among multiple threads and you want to sequentialize the execution of those threads. Which is basically a contradiction in terms.
There is in theory another much more complicated scenario in which you might want to synchronize the run() method, which again involves sharing the Runnable among multiple threads but also makes use of wait() and notify(). I've never encountered it in 21+ years of Java.
There is 1 advantage to using synchronized void blah() over void blah() { synchronized(this) { and that is your resulting bytecode will be 1 byte shorter, since the synchronization will be part of the method signature instead of an operation by itself. This may influence the chance to inline the method by the JIT compiler. Other than that there is no difference.
The best option is to use an internal private final Object lock = new Object() to prevent someone from potentially locking your monitor. It achieves the same result without the downside of the evil outside locking. You do have that extra byte, but it rarely makes a difference.
So I would say no, don't use the synchronized keyword in the signature. Instead, use something like
public class ThreadedClass implements Runnable{
private final Object lock = new Object();
public void run(){
synchronized(lock) {
while(true)
//do some stuff in a thread
}
}
}
}
Edit in response to comment:
Consider what synchronization does: it prevents other threads from entering the same code block. So imagine you have a class like the one below. Let's say the current size is 10. Someone tries to perform an add and it forces a resize of the backing array. While they're in the middle of resizing the array, someone calls a makeExactSize(5) on a different thread. Now all of a sudden you're trying to access data[6] and it bombs out on you. Synchronization is supposed to prevent that from happening. In multithreaded programs you simply NEED synchronization.
class Stack {
int[] data = new int[10];
int pos = 0;
void add(int inc) {
if(pos == data.length) {
int[] tmp = new int[pos*2];
for(int i = 0; i < pos; i++) tmp[i] = data[i];
data = tmp;
}
data[pos++] = inc;
}
int remove() {
return data[pos--];
}
void makeExactSize(int size) {
int[] tmp = new int[size];
for(int i = 0; i < size; i++) tmp[i] = data[i];
data = tmp;
}
}
Why? Minimal extra safety and I don't see any plausible scenario where it would make a difference.
Why not? It's not standard. If you are coding as part of a team, when some other member sees your synchronized run he'll probably waste 30 minutes trying to figure out what is so special either with your run or with the framework you are using to run the Runnable's.
From my experience, it's not useful to add "synchronized" keyword to run() method. If we need synchronize multiple threads, or we need a thread-safe queue, we can use more appropriate components, such as ConcurrentLinkedQueue.
Well you could theoretically call the run method itself without problem (after all it is public). But that doesn't mean one should do it. So basically there's no reason to do this, apart from adding negligible overhead to the thread calling run(). Well except if you use the instance multiple times calling new Thread - although I'm a) not sure that's legal with the threading API and b) seems completely useless.
Also your createThreadQueue doesn't work. synchronized on a non-static method synchronizes on the instance object (ie this), so all three threads will run in parallel.
Go through the code comments and uncomment and run the different blocks to clearly see the difference, note synchronization will have a difference only if the same runnable instance is used, if each thread started gets a new runnable it won't make any difference.
class Kat{
public static void main(String... args){
Thread t1;
// MyUsualRunnable is usual stuff, only this will allow concurrency
MyUsualRunnable m0 = new MyUsualRunnable();
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
t1 = new Thread(m0);//*imp* here all threads created are passed the same runnable instance
t1.start();
}
// run() method is synchronized , concurrency killed
// uncomment below block and run to see the difference
MySynchRunnable1 m1 = new MySynchRunnable1();
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
t1 = new Thread(m1);//*imp* here all threads created are passed the same runnable instance, m1
// if new insances of runnable above were created for each loop then synchronizing will have no effect
t1.start();
}
// run() method has synchronized block which lock on runnable instance , concurrency killed
// uncomment below block and run to see the difference
/*
MySynchRunnable2 m2 = new MySynchRunnable2();
for(int i = 0; i < 5; i++){
// if new insances of runnable above were created for each loop then synchronizing will have no effect
t1 = new Thread(m2);//*imp* here all threads created are passed the same runnable instance, m2
t1.start();
}*/
}
}
class MyUsualRunnable implements Runnable{
#Override
public void run(){
try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
class MySynchRunnable1 implements Runnable{
// this is implicit synchronization
//on the runnable instance as the run()
// method is synchronized
#Override
public synchronized void run(){
try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
class MySynchRunnable2 implements Runnable{
// this is explicit synchronization
//on the runnable instance
//inside the synchronized block
// MySynchRunnable2 is totally equivalent to MySynchRunnable1
// usually we never synchronize on this or synchronize the run() method
#Override
public void run(){
synchronized(this){
try {Thread.sleep(1000);} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
}
}

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