Develop Reference

Editing a file using async threads in Java

I'm a small java developer currently working on a discord bot that I made in Java. one of the features of my bot is to simply have a leveling system whenever anyone sends a message (and other conditions but this is irrelevant for the problem I'm encountering).
Whenever someone sends a message an event is fired and a thread is created to compute how much exp the user should gain. and eventually, the function to edit the storage file is called.
which works fine when called sparsely. but if two threads try to write on the file at once, the file usually gets deleted or truncated. either of these two cases being undesired behavior
I then tried to make a queuing system that worked for over 24h but still failed once so it is more stable in a way. I only know the basics of how threads work so I may've skipped over an important thing that causes the problem
the function looks like this
Thread editingThread = null;
public boolean editThreadStarted = false;
HashMap<String, String> queue = new HashMap<>();
public final boolean editParameter(String key, String value) {
queue.put(key, value);
if(!editThreadStarted) {
editingThread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while(queue.keySet().size() > 0) {
String key = (String) queue.keySet().toArray()[0];
String value = queue.get(key);
File inputFile = getFile();
File tempFile = new File(getFile().getName() + ".temp");
try {
tempFile.createNewFile();
} catch (IOException e) {
DemiConsole.error("Failed to create temp file");
handleTrace(e);
continue;
}
//System.out.println("tempFile.isFile = " + tempFile.isFile());
try (BufferedReader reader = new BufferedReader(new FileReader(inputFile)); BufferedWriter writer = new BufferedWriter(new FileWriter(tempFile))){
String currentLine;
while((currentLine = reader.readLine()) != null) {
String trimmedLine = currentLine.trim();
if(trimmedLine.startsWith(key)) {
writer.write(key + ":" + value + System.getProperty("line.separator"));
continue;
}
writer.write(currentLine + System.getProperty("line.separator"));
}
writer.close();
reader.close();
inputFile.delete();
tempFile.renameTo(inputFile);
} catch (IOException e) {
DemiConsole.error("Caught an IO exception while attempting to edit parameter ("+key+") in file ("+getFile().getName()+"), returning false");
handleTrace(e);
continue;
}
queue.remove(key);
}
editThreadStarted = false;
}
});
editThreadStarted = true;
editingThread.start();
}
return true;
}
getFile() returns the file the function is meant to write to
the file format is
memberid1:expamount
memberid2:expamount
memberid3:expamount
memberid4:expamount
the way the editing works is by creating a temporary file to which i will write all of the original file's data line by line, checking if the memberid matches with what i want to edit, if it does, then instead of writing the original file's line, i will write the new edited line with the new expamount instead, before continuing on with the rest of the lines. Once that is done, the original file is deleted and the temporary file is renamed to the original file, replacing it.
This function will always be called asynchronously so making the whole thing synchronous is not an option.
Thanks in advance
Edit(1) :
I've been suggested to use semaphores and after digging a little into it (i never heard of semaphores before) it seems to be a really good option and would remove the need for a queue, simply aquire in the beginning and release at the end, nothing more required!

I ended up using semaphores as per user207421's suggestions and it seems to work perfectly
I simply put delays between each line write to artificially make the task longer and make it easier to have multiple threads trying to write at once, and they all wait for their turns!
Thanks

Error while reading data through socket communication

Following scenario that explains my problem.
I've a PLC that acts as a server socket program. I've written a Client Java program to communicate through socket communication with the PLC.
Steps that take place in this process are:
1) For each second my Client program happen to communicate with the PLC, read the data in stream, store the data temporarily in a ByteArrayOutputStream and closing both input stream and socket. Following snippet gives the idea
try {
socket = new Socket(host, port);
is = socket.getInputStream();
outputBuffer = new ByteArrayOutputStream();
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
int read;
if((read = is.read(buffer)) != -1) {
outputBuffer.write(buffer, 0, read);
}
} catch (UnknownHostException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
} finally {
try {
System.out.println("Before closing the socket");
try {
is.close();
socket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
System.out.println("After closing the socket");
} catch (Exception e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
2) Processing stored data according to my requirement is what I'm trying to do. So for every 1 second, client program connects to Server, read the data(if data is present), store the data, close socket and process it. And it has to happen for a very long run, probably till the Server program is on. And that may happen till for every few weeks.
3) Problem what I'm facing is, I'm able to run the above show for 1-2 hours, but from then, Client Program unable to fetch the data from the Server Program(PLC in this case), though both are connected through socket. I.e 128 bytes of data present, but Client program isn't able to read that data. And this started happening after program run successfully for almost 2hours
4) Please find the brief code which may help for you to look into.
public class LoggingApplication {
public static void main(String[] args) throws NumberFormatException {
if (args.length > 0 && args.length == 2) {
String ipAddress = mappingService.getIpAddress();
int portNo = (int) mappingService.getPortNo();
ScheduledExecutorService execService = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
execService.schedule(new MyTask(execService, ipAddress, portNo, mappingService), 1000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
} else {
throw new IllegalArgumentException("Please pass IPAddress and port no as arguments");
}
}
}
Runnable Code:
public class MyTask implements Runnable {
public ScheduledExecutorService execService;
private String ipAddress;
private int portNo;
private ConfigurationMappingService mappingService;
private MySocketSocketUtil mySocketSocketUtil;
public MyTask(ScheduledExecutorService execService, String ipAddress, int portNo, ConfigurationMappingService mappingService) {
this.execService = execService;
this.ipAddress = ipAddress;
this.portNo = portNo;
this.mappingService = mappingService;
}
public void run() {
MySocketSocketUtil mySocketSocketUtil = new MySocketSocketUtil(ipAddress, portNo);
execService.schedule(new MyTask(execService, ipAddress, portNo, mappingService), 1000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
mySocketSocketUtil.getData(); //It's able to fetch the data for almost 2 hours but from then, it's just getting empty data and it's keep on giving empty data from then. and so on.
/*
*
*Some code
*/
}
}
Here's where, I'm having the problem
mySocketSocketUtil.getData(); is able to fetch the data for almost 2 hours but from then, it's just getting empty data and it's keep on giving empty data from then. and so on. It's a big question I know, And I want to understand what might have gone wrong.
Edit: I'm ignoring the condition to check end of the stream and closing a socket based on it is because, I knew I'm going to read first 1024 bytes of data only always. And So, I'm closing the socket in finally block

socket = new Socket(host, port);
if(socket != null && socket.isConnected())
It is impossible for socket to be null or socket.isConnected() to be false at this point. Don't write pointless code.
if((read = is.read(buffer)) != -1) {
outputBuffer.write(buffer, 0, read);
};
Here you are ignoring a possible end of stream. If read() returns -1 you must close the socket. It will never not return -1 again. This completely explains your 'empty data':
from then, it's just getting empty data and it's keep on giving empty data from then, and so on
And you should not create a new Socket unless you have received -1 or an exception on the previous socket.
} else {
System.err.println("Socket couldn't be connected");
}
Unreachable: see above. Don't write pointless code.

You should never disconnect from the established connection. Connect once in the LoggingApplication. Once the socket is connected keep it open. Reuse the socket on the next read.

I think there are couple of points you need to fix before getting to the solution to your problem. Please try to follow the following suggestions first:
As #EJP said this code block is not needed.
if(socket != null && socket.isConnected()) {
also you are using a byte array of length 1024 and not using while or for loop to read the data stream. Are you expecting only a block of data which will never exceed 1024 bytes?
byte[] buffer = new byte[1024];
int read;
if((read = is.read(buffer)) != -1) {
This is also not needed as it is unreachable.
} else {
System.err.println("Socket couldn't be connected");
}
Can you explain the data stream behavior you are expecting?
Last but not the least is.read(buffer) is a blocking call so if there is no data to read yet, it will hold the thread execution at that point.
Please try to answer the questions I have asked.
#KishoreKumarKorada from your description in the comment section, it seems like you are monitoring the data change on server side. Socket stream works in a read-once fashion. So,
First thing is, you need to request from server every time and the server needs to RESEND the data on every request.
Second, the way you presented is more like you are operating on byte level, which is not very good way to do that unless you have any legitimate reason to do so. The good way is to wrap the data in JSON or XML format and send it over the stream. But to reduce bandwidth consumption, you may need to operate on byte stream sometimes. You need to decide on that.
Third, for monitoring the data change, the better way is to use some timestamp to compare when the data has changed on the server side and what is the timestamp stored on the client side, if they match, data has not changed. Otherwise fetch the data from the server side and update the client side.
Fourth, when there is data available that you are not able to read, can you debug the ins.read(...) statement to see if its getting executed and the execution goes inside the if block or if statement is evaluated to false? if true then examine the read value and let me know what you have found?
Thanks.

java socket Object memory leak

i've a memory leak problem on java Socket Object communication.
this is my send thread.
// create a new thread to send the packet
#Override
public synchronized void run() {
if(!genericSocket.isConnected()){
if(logger.isEnabled())
logger.logMessage(PFLogging.LEVEL_WARN, "Socket is close");
return;
}
int retry = 0;
boolean packetSent = false;
synchronized (objWriter) {
while ((retry < RETRY) && (!packetSent) && (genericSocket.isConnected())) {
try {
objWriter.writeObject(bean);
objWriter.flush();
// Try until the cache is reset and the memory is free
/*
boolean resetDone = false;
while(!resetDone) {
try {
objWriter.reset();
resetDone = true;
} catch (IOException r) {
Thread.sleep(1);
}
}
*/
// No error and packet sent
continuousError = 0;
packetSent = true;
} catch (Exception e) {
continuousError++;
if(logger.isEnabled())
logger.logMessage(PFLogging.LEVEL_ERROR, "Continuous Error [" + continuousError + "] sending message [" + e.getMessage() + "," + e.getCause() + "]");
// control the number of continuous errors
if(continuousError >= CONTINUOUS_ERROR) {
if(logger.isEnabled())
logger.logMessage(PFLogging.LEVEL_WARN, "I close the socket");
genericSocket.disconnect();
}
// next time is the time!
retry++;
}
}
}
}
the cache, when i sent about i packet per ms grow and grow!
if i add the commented part the cache is clean but when i need to send an async long message (about 3000 char) i see that the other message are lost!
There's another way to clean the cache without reset it??

ObjectOutputStream.reset() is not avoidable as it is the only means of clearing local hash tables, you can refer java source code for ObjectOutputStream for details of what happens in reset(), or else you will get OutOfMemoryError eventually
But you can very well implement a function like
private void writeObject(Object obj, ObjectOutputStream oos) throws IOException
{
synchronized(oos)
{
oos.writeObject(obj);
oos.flush();
oos.reset();
}
}
However you must ensure that all writes to ObjectOutputStream happens through this method.

the only solution i find is, first of starting a sending thread, to check if the thread pool is empty and in that case i reset the output stream.
I run the software all this night to check this.
Thanks all!
Matteo

I would use ObjectOutputStream.reset() periodically to clear the object cache for the stream.
You could even use it after sending every object. ;)

ciao :),
after ObjectOutputStream.flush() you can saftely use ObjectOutputStream.reset()
unless you are using the objWriter somwhere in another thread without using the synchronized (objWriter) statement.
In this case the best way IMHO is to use the objWriter in a thread, it will send object from a syncornized queue (see Queue sub-class http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/Queue.html, for example http://docs.oracle.com/javase/1.5.0/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/ConcurrentLinkedQueue.html) that is filled from the other thread (remeber to use object.clone(), because the objcet itself isn't syncornized it can be modified by other thread while you are writing it or is in queue! if you clone it your clone will be a safe copy).
That way you don't need synchronized statment because data-flow between thread and ObjectOutputStream is already synchronized, and you will be less error-prone

ServerSocket java not reading inputStream?

I have written a server is java here is the code:
public mainClass()
{
try
{
ss = new ServerSocket(8080);
while (true)
{
socket = ss.accept();
System.out.println("It is accept!");
in = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()));
//out = new PrintWriter(socket.getOutputStream(),true);
line = in.readLine();
System.out.println("you input is :" + line);
//out.close();
in.close();
socket.close();
}
}
catch (IOException e)
{
}
and I am using an iPhone application as the client.
now what my problem is that the server is not reading the inputstream while the appication is running on the iphone.. But as soon as the application is terminated the java program prints out the String which has been sent to the server..Not sure what is happening here..sorry if this is not a good question..
- (void)viewDidLoad {
[super viewDidLoad];
socket = [[LXSocket alloc]init];
if ([socket connect:#"10.211.55.2" port:8080]) {
NSLog(#"socket has been created");
}
else {
NSLog(#"socket couldn't be created created");
}
#try {
[socket sendString:#"Hi This is a second test"];
}
#catch (NSException * e) {
NSLog(#"Unable to send data");
}
[super viewDidLoad];
}
thanks,
TC

From my own experience, readLine is not a good idea, especially when working with different languages and platforms, a better approach will be to use InputStreamReader and its read(char[] buff) method, and agree on both sides regarding the length to be sent each time.
Again, I have no reference to that, only my experience.
Also, looking at your code, you send a string without a new line character: [socket sendString:#"Hi This is a second test"]; maybe adding \n at the end will solve it for you.

My guess is that the client application doesn't send any line break at the end of the string it sends. So BufferedReader.readLine() waits for an EOL character, and only returns the string when the client application ends, because at this point the connection is closed and the reader knows there won't ever be an EOL, and the string is the last line it will ever receive.

BufferedReader can be dangerous; the buffering can cause short lines to get "stuck" if you're only reading a little data at a time, or if the data is coming across a network. If you're only using BufferedReader to get readLine(), then do this:
new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(socket.getInputStream()), 1);
That extra argument sets the buffer size to 1 character, effectively turning it off. That generally solves this kind of problem.

How to write a byte array to OutputStream of process builder (Java)

byte[] bytes = value.getBytes();
Process q = new ProcessBuilder("process","arg1", "arg2").start();
q.getOutputStream().write(bytes);
q.getOutputStream().flush();
System.out.println(q.getInputStream().available());
I'm trying to stream file contents to an executable and capture the output but the output(InputStream) is always empty. I can capture the output if i specify the the file location but not with streamed input.
How might I overcome this?

Try wrapping your streams with BufferedInputStream() and BufferedOutputStream():
http://download.oracle.com/javase/6/docs/api/java/lang/Process.html#getOutputStream%28%29
Implementation note: It is a good idea for the output stream to be buffered.
Implementation note: It is a good idea for the input stream to be buffered.
Even with buffered streams, it is still possible for the buffer to fill if you're dealing with large amounts of data, you can deal with this by starting a separate thread to read from q.getInputStream(), so you can still be reading from the process while writing to the process.

Perhaps the program you execute only starts its work when it detects the end of its input data. This is normally done by waiting for an EOF (end-of-file) symbol. You can send this by closing the output stream to the process:
q.getOutputStream().write(bytes);
q.getOutputStream().close();
Try this together with waiting for the process.

I dont know if something else may also be wrong here, but the other process ("process") does not even have time to respond, you are not waiting for it (the method available() does not block). To try this out you can first insert a sleep(2000) after the flush(), and if that works you should switch to query'ing q.getInputStream().available() multiple times with short pauses in between.

I think, you have to wait, until the process finished.
I implemented something like this this way:
public class ProcessReader {
private static final int PROCESS_LOOP_SLEEP_MILLIS = 100;
private String result;
public ProcessReader(Process process) {
BufferedReader resultReader = new BufferedReader(new InputStreamReader(process.getInputStream()));
StringBuilder resultOutput = new StringBuilder();
try {
while (!checkProcessTerminated(process, resultReader, resultOutput)) {
}
} catch (Exception ex1) {
throw new RuntimeException(ex1);
}
result = resultOutput.toString();
}
public String getResult(){
return result;
}
private boolean checkProcessTerminated(Process process, BufferedReader resultReader, StringBuilder resultOutput) throws Exception {
try {
int exit = process.exitValue();
return true;
} catch (IllegalThreadStateException ex) {
Thread.sleep(PROCESS_LOOP_SLEEP_MILLIS);
} finally {
while (resultReader.ready()) {
String out = resultReader.readLine();
resultOutput.append(out).append("\n");
}
}
return false;
}
}
I just removed now some specific code, that you dont need, but it should work, try it.
Regards