[Chapter 6] 6.3 Synchronization

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| Chapter 6 Threads |

## 6.3 Synchronization

Every thread has a life of its own. Normally, a thread goes about its business without any regard for what other threads in the application are doing. Threads may be time-sliced, which means they can run in arbitrary spurts and bursts as directed by the operating system. On a multiprocessor system, it is even possible for many different threads to be running simultaneously on different CPUs. This section is about coordinating the activities of two or more threads, so they can work together and not collide in their use of the same address space.

Java provides a few simple structures for synchronizing the activities of threads. They are all based on the concept of monitors, a widely used synchronization scheme developed by C.A.R. Hoare. You don't have to know the details about how monitors work to be able to use them, but it may help you to have a picture in mind.

A monitor is essentially a lock. The lock is attached to a resource that many threads may need to access, but that should be accessed by only one thread at a time. It's not unlike a public restroom at a gas station. If the resource is not being used, the thread can acquire the lock and access the resource. By the same token, if the restroom is unlocked, you can enter and lock the door. When the thread is done, it relinquishes the lock, just as you unlock the door and leave it open for the next person. However, if another thread already has the lock for the resource, all other threads have to wait until the current thread finishes and releases the lock, just as if the restroom is locked when you arrive, you have to wait until the current occupant is done and unlocks the door.

Fortunately, Java makes the process of synchronizing access to resources quite easy. The language handles setting up and acquiring locks; all you have to do is specify which resources require locks.

### Serializing Methods

The most common need for synchronization among threads in Java is to serialize their access to some resource, namely an object. In other words, synchronization makes sure only one thread at a time can perform certain activities that manipulate an object. In Java, every object has a lock associated with it. To be more specific, every class and every instance of a class has its own lock. The `synchronized` keyword marks places where a thread must acquire the lock before proceeding.

For example, say we implemented a `SpeechSynthesizer` class that contains a `say()` method. We don't want multiple threads calling `say()` at the same time or we wouldn't be able to understand anything being said. So we mark the `say()` method as synchronized, which means that a thread has to acquire the lock on the `SpeechSynthesizer` object before it can speak:

    class SpeechSynthesizer {

        synchronized void say( String words ) {
            // Speak
        }
    }

Because `say()` is an instance method, a thread has to acquire the lock on the particular `SpeechSynthesizer` instance it is using before it can invoke the `say()` method. When `say()` has completed, it gives up the lock, which allows the next waiting thread to acquire the lock and run the method. Note that it doesn't matter whether the thread is owned by the `SpeechSynthesizer` itself or some other object; every thread has to acquire the same lock, that of the `SpeechSynthesizer` instance. If `say()` were a class (static) method instead of an instance method, we could still mark it as synchronized. But in this case as there is no instance object involved, the lock would be on the class object itself.

Often, you want to synchronize multiple methods of the same class, so that only one of the methods modifies or examines parts of the class at a time. All static synchronized methods in a class use the same class object lock. By the same token, all instance methods in a class use the same instance object lock. In this way, Java can guarantee that only one of a set of synchronized methods is running at a time. For example, a `SpreadSheet` class might contain a number of instance variables that represent cell values, as well as some methods that manipulate the cells in a row:

    class SpreadSheet {

        int cellA1, cellA2, cellA3;

        synchronized int sumRow() {
            return cellA1 + cellA2 + cellA3;
        }

        synchronized void setRow( int a1, int a2, int a3 ) {
            cellA1 = a1;
            cellA2 = a2;
            cellA3 = a3;
        }
    ...
    }

In this example, both methods `setRow()` and `sumRow()` access the cell values. You can see that problems might arise if one thread were changing the values of the variables in `setRow()` at the same moment another thread was reading the values in `sumRow()`. To prevent this, we have marked both methods as synchronized. When threads are synchronized, only one will be run at a time. If a thread is in the middle of executing `setRow()` when another thread calls `sumRow()`, the second thread waits until the first one is done executing `setRow()` before it gets to run `sumRow()`. This synchronization allows us to preserve the consistency of the `SpreadSheet`. And the best part is that all of this locking and waiting is handled by Java; it's transparent to the programmer.

In addition to synchronizing entire methods, the `synchronized` keyword can be used in a special construct to guard arbitrary blocks of code. In this form it also takes an explicit argument that specifies the object for which it is to acquire a lock:

    synchronized ( myObject ) {
        // Functionality that needs to be synced
        ...
        }

The code block above can appear in any method. When it is reached, the thread has to acquire the lock on `myObject` before proceeding. In this way, we can have methods (or parts of methods) in different classes synchronized the same as methods in the same class.

A synchronized method is, therefore, equivalent to a method with its statements synchronized on the current object. Thus:

    synchronized void myMethod () {
        ...
    }

is equivalent to:

    void myMethod () {
        synchronized ( this ) {
            ...
        }
    }

### wait( ) and notify( )

With the `synchronized` keyword, we can serialize the execution of complete methods and blocks of code. The `wait()` and `notify()` methods of the `Object` class extend this capability. Every object in Java is a subclass of `Object`, so every object inherits these methods. By using `wait()` and `notify()`, a thread can give up its hold on a lock at an arbitrary point, and then wait for another thread to give it back before continuing. All of the coordinated activity still happens inside of synchronized blocks, and still only one thread is executing at a given time.

By executing `wait()` from a synchronized block, a thread gives up its hold on the lock and goes to sleep. A thread might do this if it needs to wait for something to happen in another part of the application, as you'll see shortly. Later, when the necessary event happens, the thread that is running it calls `notify()` from a block synchronized on the same object. Now the first thread wakes up and begins trying to acquire the lock again.

When the first thread manages to reacquire the lock, it continues from the point it left off. However, the thread that waited may not get the lock immediately (or perhaps ever). It depends on when the second thread eventually releases the lock, and which thread manages to snag it next. Note also, that the first thread won't wake up from the `wait()` unless another thread calls `notify()`. There is an overloaded version of `wait()`, however, that allows us to specify a timeout period. If another thread doesn't call `notify()` in the specified period, the waiting thread automatically wakes up.

Let's look at a simple scenario to see what's going on. In the following example, we'll assume there are three threads--one waiting to execute each of the three synchronized methods of the `MyThing` class. We'll call them the `waiter`, `notifier`, and `related` threads, respectively. Here's a code fragment to illustrate:

    class MyThing {

        synchronized void waiterMethod() {
            // Do some stuff

            // Now we need to wait for notifier to do something
            wait();

            // Continue where we left off
        }

        synchronized void notifierMethod() {
            // Do some stuff

            // Notify waiter that we've done it
            notify();

            // Do more things
        }

        synchronized void relatedMethod() {
            // Do some related stuff
        }

Let's assume `waiter` gets through the gate first and begins executing `waiterMethod()`. The two other threads are initially blocked, trying to acquire the lock for the `MyThing` object. When `waiter` executes the `wait()` method, it relinquishes its hold on the lock and goes to sleep. Now there are now two viable threads waiting for the lock. Which thread gets it depends on several factors, including chance and the priorities of the threads. (We'll discuss thread scheduling in the next section.)

Let's say that `notifier` is the next thread to acquire the lock, so it begins to run. `waiter` continues to sleep and `related` languishes, waiting for its turn. When `notifier` executes the call to `notify()`, Java prods the `waiter` thread, effectively telling it something has changed. `waiter` then wakes up and rejoins `related` in vying for the `MyThing` lock. Note that it doesn't actually receive the lock; it just changes from saying "leave me alone" to "I want the lock."

At this point, `notifier` still owns the lock and continues to hold it until it leaves its synchronized method (or perhaps executes a `wait()` itself ). When it finally completes, the other two methods get to fight over the lock. `waiter` would like to continue executing `waiterMethod()` from the point it left off, while `unrelated`, which has been patient, would like to get started. We'll let you choose your own ending for the story.

For each call to `notify()`, Java wakes up just one method that is asleep in a `wait()` call. If there are multiple threads waiting, Java picks the first thread on a first-in, first-out basis. The `Object` class also provides a `notifyAll()` call to wake up all waiting threads. In most cases, you'll probably want to use `notifyAll()` rather than `notify()`. Keep in mind that `notify()` really means "Hey, something related to this object has changed. The condition you are waiting for may have changed, so check it again." In general, there is no reason to assume only one thread at a time is interested in the change or able to act upon it. Different threads might look upon whatever has changed in different ways.

Often, our `waiter` thread is waiting for a particular condition to change and we will want to sit in a loop like the following:

    ...
    while ( condition != true )
        wait();
    ...

Other synchronized threads call `notify()` or `notifyAll()` when they have modified the environment so that `waiter` can check the condition again. This is the civilized alternative to polling and sleeping, as you'll see the following example.

### The Message Passer

Now we'll illustrate a classic interaction between two threads: a `Producer` and a `Consumer`. A producer thread creates messages and places them into a queue, while a consumer reads them out and displays them. To be realistic, we'll give the queue a maximum depth. And to make things really interesting, we'll have our consumer thread be lazy and run much slower than the producer. This means that `Producer` occasionally has to stop and wait for `Consumer` to catch up. The example below shows the `Producer` and `Consumer` classes.

    import java.util.Vector;

    class Producer extends Thread {
        static final int MAXQUEUE = 5;
        private Vector messages = new Vector();

        public void run() {
            try {
                while ( true ) {
                    putMessage();
                    sleep( 1000 );
                }
            }
            catch( InterruptedException e ) { }
        }

        private synchronized void putMessage()
            throws InterruptedException {

            while ( messages.size() == MAXQUEUE )
                wait();
            messages.addElement( new java.util.Date().toString() );
            notify();
        }

        // Called by Consumer
        public synchronized String getMessage()
            throws InterruptedException {
            notify();
            while ( messages.size() == 0 )
                wait();
            String message = (String)messages.firstElement();
            messages.removeElement( message );
            return message;
        }
    }

    class Consumer extends Thread {
        Producer producer;

        Consumer(Producer p) {
            producer = p;
        }

        public void run() {
            try {
                while ( true ) {
                    String message = producer.getMessage();
                    System.out.println("Got message: " + message);
                    sleep( 2000 );
                }
            }
            catch( InterruptedException e ) { }
        }

        public static void main(String args[]) {
            Producer producer = new Producer();
            producer.start();
            new Consumer( producer ).start();
        }
    }

For convenience, we have included a `main()` method that runs the complete example in the `Consumer` class. It creates a `Consumer` that is tied to a `Producer` and starts the two classes. You can run the example as follows:

    % java Consumer

The output is the time-stamp messages created by the `Producer`:

    Got message: Sun Dec 19 03:35:55 CST 1996
    Got message: Sun Dec 19 03:35:56 CST 1996
    Got message: Sun Dec 19 03:35:57 CST 1996
    ...

The time stamps initially show a spacing of one second, although they appear every two seconds. Our `Producer` runs faster than our `Consumer`. `Producer` would like to generate a new message every second, while `Consumer` gets around to reading and displaying a message only every two seconds. Can you see how long it will take the message queue to fill up? What will happen when it does?

Let's look at the code. We are using a few new tools here. `Producer` and `Consumer` are subclasses of `Thread`. It would have been a better design decision to have `Producer` and `Consumer` implement the `Runnable` interface, but we took the slightly easier path and subclassed `Thread`. You should find it fairly simple to use the other technique; you might try it as an exercise.

The `Producer` and `Consumer` classes pass messages through an instance of a `java.util.Vector` object. We haven't discussed the `Vector` class yet, but you can think of this one as a queue where we add and remove elements in first-in, first-out order. See Chapter 7, Basic Utility Classes for more information about the `Vector` class.

The important activity is in the synchronized methods: `putMessage()` and `getMessage()`. Although one of the methods is used by the `Producer` thread and the other by the `Consumer` thread, they both live in the `Producer` class because they have to be synchronized on the same object to work together. Here they both implicitly use the `Producer` object's lock. If the queue is empty, the `Consumer` blocks in a call in the `Producer`, waiting for another message.

Another design option would implement the `getMessage()` method in the `Consumer` class and use a synchronized code block to explicitly synchronize on the `Producer` object. In either case, synchronizing on the `Producer` is important because it allows us to have multiple `Consumer` objects that feed on the same `Producer`.

`putMessage()`'s job is to add a new message to the queue. It can't do this if the queue is already full, so it first checks the number of elements in `messages`. If there is room, it stuffs in another time stamp. If the queue is at its limit however, `putMessage()` has to wait until there's space. In this situation, `putMessage()` executes a `wait()` and relies on the consumer to call `notify()` to wake it up after a message has been read. Here we have `putMessage()` testing the condition in a loop. In this simple example, the test probably isn't necessary; we could assume that when `putMessage()` wakes up, there is a free spot. However, this test is another example of good programming practice. Before it finishes, `putMessage()` calls `notify()` itself to prod any `Consumer` that might be waiting on an empty queue.

`getMessage()` retrieves a message for the `Consumer`. It enters a loop like the `Producer`'s, waiting for the queue to have at least one element before proceeding. If the queue is empty, it executes a `wait()` and expects the producer to call `notify()` when more items are available. Notice that `getMessage()` makes its own unconditional call to `notify()`. This is a somewhat lazy way of keeping the `Producer` on its toes, so that the queue should generally be full. Alternatively, `getMessage()` might test to see if the queue had fallen below a low water mark before waking up the producer.

Now let's add another `Consumer` to the scenario, just to make things really interesting. Most of the necessary changes are in the `Consumer` class; the example below shows the code for the modified class.

    class Consumer extends Thread {
        Producer producer;
            String name;

        Consumer(String name, Producer producer) {
            this.producer = producer;
            this.name = name;
        }

        public void run() {
            try {
                while ( true ) {
                    String message = producer.getMessage();
                    System.out.println(name + " got message: " + message);
                    sleep( 2000 );
                }
            }
            catch( InterruptedException e ) { }
        }

        public static void main(String args[]) {
            Producer producer = new Producer();
            producer.start();

            // Start two this time
            new Consumer( "One", producer ).start();
            new Consumer( "Two", producer ).start();
        }
    }

The `Consumer` constructor now takes a string name, to identify each consumer. The `run()` method uses this name in the call to `println()` to identify which consumer received the message.

The only modification to make in the `Producer` code is to change the call to `notify()` in `putMessage()` to a call to `notifyAll()`. Now, instead of the consumer and producer playing tag with the queue, we can have many players waiting on the condition of the queue to change. We might have a number of consumers waiting for a message, or we might have the producer waiting for a consumer to take a message. Whenever the condition of the queue changes, we prod all of the waiting methods to reevaluate the situation by calling `notifyAll()`. Note, however, that we don't need to change the call to `notify()` in `getMessage()`. If a `Consumer` thread is waiting for a message to appear in the queue, it's not possible for the `Producer` to be simultaneously waiting because the queue is full.

Here is some sample output when there are two consumers running, as in the `main()` method shown above:

    One got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:01 CST 1996
    Two got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:02 CST 1996
    One got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:03 CST 1996
    Two got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:04 CST 1996
    One got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:05 CST 1996
    Two got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:06 CST 1996
    One got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:07 CST 1996
    Two got message: Wed Mar 20 20:00:08 CST 1996
    ...

We see nice, orderly alternation between the two consumers, as a result of the calls to `sleep()` in the various methods. Interesting things would happen, however, if we were to remove all of the calls to `sleep()` and let things run at full speed. The threads would compete and their behavior would depend on whether or not the system is using time slicing. On a time-sliced system, there should be a fairly random distribution between the two consumers, while on a nontime-sliced system, a single consumer could monopolize the messages. And since you're probably wondering about time slicing, let's talk about thread priority and scheduling.

Threading Applets |  | Scheduling and Priority