/* * Licensed to the Apache Software Foundation (ASF) under one or more * contributor license agreements. See the NOTICE file distributed with * this work for additional information regarding copyright ownership. * The ASF licenses this file to You under the Apache License, Version 2.0 * (the "License"); you may not use this file except in compliance with * the License. You may obtain a copy of the License at * * http://www.apache.org/licenses/LICENSE-2.0 * * Unless required by applicable law or agreed to in writing, software * distributed under the License is distributed on an "AS IS" BASIS, * WITHOUT WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF ANY KIND, either express or implied. * See the License for the specific language governing permissions and * limitations under the License. */ /** * <p>Provides support classes for multi-threaded programming. * This package is intended to be an extension to {@link java.util.concurrent}. * These classes are thread-safe.</p> * * <h3></h3> * * <p> A group of classes deals with the correct creation and initialization of objects that are accessed by multiple threads. * All these classes implement the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentInitializer} interface which provides just a * single method: * </p> * * <pre> * <code> * public interface ConcurrentInitializer<T> { * T get() throws ConcurrentException; * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>A <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code> produces an object. * By calling the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentInitializer#get() get()} method the object managed by the initializer can be obtained. * There are different implementations of the interface available * addressing various use cases: * </p> * * <p> {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConstantInitializer} is a very straightforward implementation of the <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code> interface: * An instance is passed an object when it is constructed. * In its <code>get()</code> method it simply returns this object. * This is useful, for instance in unit tests or in cases when you want to pass a specific object to a component which expects a <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code>. * </p> * * <p>The {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.LazyInitializer} class can be used to defer the creation of an object until it is actually used. * This makes sense, for instance, if the creation of the object is expensive and would slow down application startup or if the object is needed only for special executions. * <code>LazyInitializer</code> implements the <em>double-check idiom for an instance field</em> as discussed in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java", 2nd edition, item 71. * It uses <strong>volatile</strong> fields to reduce the amount of synchronization. * Note that this idiom is appropriate for instance fields only. * For <strong>static</strong> fields there are superior alternatives.</p> * * <p>We provide an example use case to demonstrate the usage of this class: * A server application uses multiple worker threads to process client requests. * If such a request causes a fatal error, an administrator is to be notified using a special messaging service. * We assume that the creation of the messaging service is an expensive operation. * So it should only be performed if an error actually occurs. * Here is where <code>LazyInitializer</code> comes into play. * We create a specialized subclass for creating and initializing an instance of our messaging service. * <code>LazyInitializer</code> declares an abstract {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.LazyInitializer#initialize() initialize()} method which we have to implement to create the messaging service object:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * public class MessagingServiceInitializer extends LazyInitializer<MessagingService> { * protected MessagingService initialize() throws ConcurrentException { * // Do all necessary steps to create and initialize the service object * MessagingService service = ... * return service; * } * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p> Now each server thread is passed a reference to a shared instance of our new <code>MessagingServiceInitializer</code> class. * The threads run in a loop processing client requests. If an error is detected, the messaging service is obtained from the initializer, and the administrator is notified:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * public class ServerThread implements Runnable { * // The initializer for obtaining the messaging service. * private final ConcurrentInitializer<MessagingService> initializer; * * public ServerThread(ConcurrentInitializer<MessagingService> init) { * initializer = init; * } * * public void run() { * while (true) { * try { * // wait for request * // process request * } catch (FatalServerException ex) { * // get messaging service * try { * MessagingService svc = initializer.get(); * svc.notifyAdministrator(ex); * } catch (ConcurrentException cex) { * cex.printStackTrace(); * } * } * } * } * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>The {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicInitializer} class is very similar to <code>LazyInitializer</code>. * It serves the same purpose: to defer the creation of an object until it is needed. * The internal structure is also very similar. * Again there is an abstract {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicInitializer#initialize() initialize()} method which has to be implemented by concrete subclasses in order to create and initialize the managed object. * Actually, in our example above we can turn the <code>MessagingServiceInitializer</code> into an atomic initializer by simply changing the <strong>extends</strong> declaration to refer to <code>AtomicInitializer<MessagingService></code> as super class.</p> * * <p>With {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicSafeInitializer} there is yet another variant implementing the lazy initializing pattern. * Its implementation is close to <code>AtomicInitializer</code>; it also uses atomic variables internally and therefore does not need synchronization. * The name "Safe" is derived from the fact that it implements an additional check which guarantees that the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicSafeInitializer#initialize() initialize()} method is called only once. * So it behaves exactly in the same way as <code>LazyInitializer</code>.</p> * * <p>Now, which one of the lazy initializer implementations should you use? * First of all we have to state that is is problematic to give general recommendations regarding the performance of these classes. * The initializers make use of low-level functionality whose efficiency depends on multiple factors including the target platform and the number of concurrent threads. * So developers should make their own benchmarks in scenarios close to their specific use cases. * The following statements are rules of thumb which have to be verified in practice.</p> * * <p><code>AtomicInitializer</code> is probably the most efficient implementation due to its lack of synchronization and further checks. * Its main drawback is that the <code>initialize()</code> method can be called multiple times. * In cases where this is not an issue <code>AtomicInitializer</code> is a good choice. * <code>AtomicSafeInitializer</code> and <code>LazyInitializer</code> both guarantee that the initialization method is called only once. * Because <code>AtomicSafeInitializer</code> does not use synchronization it is probably slightly more efficient than <code>LazyInitializer</code>, but the concrete numbers might depend on the level of concurrency.</p> * * <p>Another implementation of the <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code> interface is {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BackgroundInitializer}. * It is again an abstract base class with an {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BackgroundInitializer#initialize() initialize()} method that has to be defined by concrete subclasses. * The idea of <code>BackgroundInitializer</code> is that it calls the <code>initialize()</code> method in a separate worker thread. * An application creates a background initializer and starts it. * Then it can continue with its work while the initializer runs in parallel. * When the application needs the results of the initializer it calls its <code>get()</code> method. * <code>get()</code> blocks until the initialization is complete. * This is useful for instance at application startup. * Here initialization steps (e.g. reading configuration files, opening a database connection, etc.) can be run in background threads while the application shows a splash screen and constructs its UI.</p> * * <p>As a concrete example consider an application that has to read the content of a URL - maybe a page with news - which is to be displayed to the user after login. * Because loading the data over the network can take some time a specialized implementation of <code>BackgroundInitializer</code> can be created for this purpose:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * public class URLLoader extends BackgroundInitializer<String> { * // The URL to be loaded. * private final URL url; * * public URLLoader(URL u) { * url = u; * } * * protected String initialize() throws ConcurrentException { * try { * InputStream in = url.openStream(); * // read content into string * ... * return content; * } catch (IOException ioex) { * throw new ConcurrentException(ioex); * } * } * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>An application creates an instance of <code>URLLoader</code> and starts it. * Then it can do other things. * When it needs the content of the URL it calls the initializer's <code>get()</code> method:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * URL url = new URL("http://www.application-home-page.com/"); * URLLoader loader = new URLLoader(url); * loader.start(); // this starts the background initialization * * // do other stuff * ... * // now obtain the content of the URL * String content; * try { * content = loader.get(); // this may block * } catch (ConcurrentException cex) { * content = "Error when loading URL " + url; * } * // display content * </code> * </pre> * * <p> Related to <code>BackgroundInitializer</code> is the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.MultiBackgroundInitializer} class. * As the name implies, this class can handle multiplie initializations in parallel. * The basic usage scenario is that a <code>MultiBackgroundInitializer</code> instance is created. * Then an arbitrary number of <code>BackgroundInitializer</code> objects is added using the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.MultiBackgroundInitializer#addInitializer(String, BackgroundInitializer)} method. * When adding an initializer a string has to be provided which is later used to obtain the result for this initializer. * When all initializers have been added the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.MultiBackgroundInitializer#start()} method is called. * This starts processing of all initializers. * Later the <code>get()</code> method can be called. * It waits until all initializers have finished their initialization. * <code>get()</code> returns an object of type {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.MultiBackgroundInitializer.MultiBackgroundInitializerResults}. * This object provides information about all initializations that have been performed. * It can be checked whether a specific initializer was successful or threw an exception. * Of course, all initialization results can be queried.</p> * * <p>With <code>MultiBackgroundInitializer</code> we can extend our example to perform multiple initialization steps. * Suppose that in addition to loading a web site we also want to create a JPA entity manager factory and read a configuration file. * We assume that corresponding <code>BackgroundInitializer</code> implementations exist. * The following example fragment shows the usage of <code>MultiBackgroundInitializer</code> for this purpose:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * MultiBackgroundInitializer initializer = new MultiBackgroundInitializer(); * initializer.addInitializer("url", new URLLoader(url)); * initializer.addInitializer("jpa", new JPAEMFInitializer()); * initializer.addInitializer("config", new ConfigurationInitializer()); * initializer.start(); // start background processing * * // do other interesting things in parallel * ... * // evaluate the results of background initialization * MultiBackgroundInitializer.MultiBackgroundInitializerResults results = * initializer.get(); * String urlContent = (String) results.getResultObject("url"); * EntityManagerFactory emf = * (EntityManagerFactory) results.getResultObject("jpa"); * ... * </code> * </pre> * * <p>The child initializers are added to the multi initializer and are assigned a unique name. * The object returned by the <code>get()</code> method is then queried for the single results using these unique names.</p> * * <p> If background initializers - including <code>MultiBackgroundInitializer</code> - are created using the standard constructor, they create their own {@link java.util.concurrent.ExecutorService} which is used behind the scenes to execute the worker tasks. * It is also possible to pass in an <code>ExecutorService</code> when the initializer is constructed. * That way client code can configure the <code>ExecutorService</code> according to its specific needs; for instance, the number of threads available could be limited.</p> * * <h3>Utility Classes</h3> * * <p>Another group of classes in the new <code>concurrent</code> package offers some generic functionality related to concurrency. * There is the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils} class with a bunch of static utility methods. * One focus of this class is dealing with exceptions thrown by JDK classes. * Many JDK classes of the executor framework throw exceptions of type {@link java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException} if something goes wrong. * The root cause of these exceptions can also be a runtime exception or even an error. * In typical Java programming you often do not want to deal with runtime exceptions directly; rather you let them fall through the hierarchy of method invocations until they reach a central exception handler. * Checked exceptions in contrast are usually handled close to their occurrence. * With <code>ExecutionException</code> this principle is violated. * Because it is a checked exception, an application is forced to handle it even if the cause is a runtime exception. * So you typically have to inspect the cause of the <code>ExecutionException</code> and test whether it is a checked exception which has to be handled. If this is not the case, the causing exception can be rethrown. * </p> * * <p>The {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#extractCause(java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException)} method does this work for you. * It is passed an <code>ExecutionException</code> and tests its root cause. * If this is an error or a runtime exception, it is directly rethrown. * Otherwise, an instance of {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentException} is created and initialized with the root cause * (<code>ConcurrentException</code> is a new exception class in the <code>o.a.c.l.concurrent</code> package). * So if you get such a <code>ConcurrentException</code>, you can be sure that the original cause for the <code>ExecutionException</code> was a checked exception. * For users who prefer runtime exceptions in general there is also an {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#extractCauseUnchecked(java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException)} method which behaves like <code>extractCause()</code>, but returns the unchecked exception {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentRuntimeException} instead.</p> * * <p>In addition to the <code>extractCause()</code> methods there are corresponding {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#handleCause(java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException)} and {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#handleCauseUnchecked(java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException)} methods. * These methods extract the cause of the passed in <code>ExecutionException</code> and throw the resulting <code>ConcurrentException</code> or <code>ConcurrentRuntimeException</code>. * This makes it easy to transform an <code>ExecutionException</code> into a <code>ConcurrentException</code> ignoring unchecked exceptions:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * Future<Object> future = ...; * try { * Object result = future.get(); * ... * } catch (ExecutionException eex) { * ConcurrentUtils.handleCause(eex); * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>There is also some support for the concurrent initializers introduced in the last sub section. * The <code>initialize()</code> method is passed a <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code> object and returns the object created by this initializer. * It is null-safe. * The <code>initializeUnchecked()</code> method works analogously, but a <code>ConcurrentException</code> throws by the initializer is rethrown as a <code>ConcurrentRuntimeException</code>. * This is especially useful if the specific <code>ConcurrentInitializer</code> does not throw checked exceptions. * Using this method the code for requesting the object of an initializer becomes less verbose. * The direct invocation looks as follows:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * ConcurrentInitializer<MyClass> initializer = ...; * try { * MyClass obj = initializer.get(); * // do something with obj * } catch (ConcurrentException cex) { * // exception handling * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>Using the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#initializeUnchecked(ConcurrentInitializer)} method, this becomes:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * ConcurrentInitializer<MyClass> initializer = ...; * MyClass obj = ConcurrentUtils.initializeUnchecked(initializer); * // do something with obj * </code> * </pre> * * <p>Another utility class deals with the creation of threads. * When using the <em>Executor</em> framework new in JDK 1.5 the developer usually does not have to care about creating threads; the executors create the threads they need on demand. * However, sometimes it is desired to set some properties of the newly created worker threads. * This is possible through the {@link java.util.concurrent.ThreadFactory} interface; an implementation of this interface has to be created and passed to an executor on creation time. * Currently, the JDK does not provide an implementation of <code>ThreadFactory</code>, so one has to start from scratch. </p> * * <p> With {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BasicThreadFactory} Commons Lang has an implementation of <code>ThreadFactory</code> that works out of the box for many common use cases. * For instance, it is possible to set a naming pattern for the new threads, set the daemon flag and a priority, or install a handler for uncaught exceptions. * Instances of <code>BasicThreadFactory</code> are created and configured using the nested {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BasicThreadFactory.Builder} class. * The following example shows a typical usage scenario:</p> * * <pre> * <code> * BasicThreadFactory factory = new BasicThreadFactory.Builder() * .namingPattern("worker-thread-%d") * .daemon(true) * .uncaughtExceptionHandler(myHandler) * .build(); * ExecutorService exec = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor(factory); * </code> * </pre> * * <p>The nested <code>Builder</code> class defines some methods for configuring the new <code>BasicThreadFactory</code> instance. * Objects of this class are immutable, so these attributes cannot be changed later. * The naming pattern is a string which can be passed to <code>String.format()</code>. * The placeholder <em>%d</em> is replaced by an increasing counter value. * An instance can wrap another <code>ThreadFactory</code> implementation; this is achieved by calling the builder's {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BasicThreadFactory.Builder#wrappedFactory(java.util.concurrent.ThreadFactory) wrappedFactory(ThreadFactory)} method. * This factory is then used for creating new threads; after that the specific attributes are applied to the new thread. * If no wrapped factory is set, the default factory provided by the JDK is used.</p> * * <h3>Synchronization objects</h3> * * <p>The <code>concurrent</code> package also provides some support for specific synchronization problems with threads.</p> * * <p> {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.TimedSemaphore} allows restricted access to a resource in a given time frame. * Similar to a semaphore, a number of permits can be acquired. * What is new is the fact that the permits available are related to a given time unit. * For instance, the timed semaphore can be configured to allow 10 permits in a second. * Now multiple threads access the semaphore and call its {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.TimedSemaphore#acquire()} method. * The semaphore keeps track about the number of granted permits in the current time frame. * Only 10 calls are allowed; if there are further callers, they are blocked until the time frame (one second in this example) is over. * Then all blocking threads are released, and the counter of available permits is reset to 0. * So the game can start anew.</p> * * <p> What are use cases for <code>TimedSemaphore</code>? * One example is to artificially limit the load produced by multiple threads. * Consider a batch application accessing a database to extract statistical data. * The application runs multiple threads which issue database queries in parallel and perform some calculation on the results. * If the database to be processed is huge and is also used by a production system, multiple factors have to be balanced: * On one hand, the time required for the statistical evaluation should not take too long. * Therefore you will probably use a larger number of threads because most of its life time a thread will just wait for the database to return query results. * On the other hand, the load on the database generated by all these threads should be limited so that the responsiveness of the production system is not affected. * With a <code>TimedSemaphore</code> object this can be achieved. * The semaphore can be configured to allow e.g. 100 queries per second. * After these queries have been sent to the database the threads have to wait until the second is over - then they can query again. * By fine-tuning the limit enforced by the semaphore a good balance between performance and database load can be established. * It is even possible to chang? the number of available permits at runtime. * So this number can be reduced during the typical working hours and increased at night.</p> * * <p>The following code examples demonstrate parts of the implementation of such a scenario. * First the batch application has to create an instance of <code>TimedSemaphore</code> and to initialize its properties with default values:</p> * * <code>TimedSemaphore semaphore = new TimedSemaphore(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS, 100);</code> * * <p>Here we specify that the semaphore should allow 100 permits in one second. * This is effectively the limit of database queries per second in our example use case. * Next the server threads issuing database queries and performing statistical operations can be initialized. * They are passed a reference to the semaphore at creation time. Before they execute a query they have to acquire a permit.</p> * * <pre> * <code> * public class StatisticsTask implements Runnable { * // The semaphore for limiting database load. * private final TimedSemaphore semaphore; * * public StatisticsTask(TimedSemaphore sem, Connection con) { * semaphore = sem; * ... * } * * //The main processing method. Executes queries and evaluates their results. * public void run() { * try { * while (!isDone()) { * semaphore.acquire(); // enforce the load limit * executeAndEvaluateQuery(); * } * } catch (InterruptedException iex) { * // fall through * } * } * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>The important line here is the call to <code>semaphore.acquire()</code>. * If the number of permits in the current time frame has not yet been reached, the call returns immediately. * Otherwise, it blocks until the end of the time frame. * The last piece missing is a scheduler service which adapts the number of permits allowed by the semaphore according to the time of day. * We assume that this service is pretty simple and knows only two different time slots: * working shift and night shift. * The service is triggered periodically. * It then determines the current time slot and configures the timed semaphore accordingly.</p> * * <pre> * <code> * public class SchedulerService { * // The semaphore for limiting database load. * private final TimedSemaphore semaphore; * ... * * // Configures the timed semaphore based on the current time of day. This method is called periodically. * public void configureTimedSemaphore() { * int limit; * if (isWorkshift()) { * limit = 50; // low database load * } else { * limit = 250; // high database load * } * * semaphore.setLimit(limit); * } * } * </code> * </pre> * * <p>With the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.TimedSemaphore#setLimit(int)} method the number of permits allowed for a time frame can be changed. * There are some other methods for querying the internal state of a timed semaphore. * Also some statistical data is available, e.g. the average number of <code>acquire()</code> calls per time frame. * When a timed semaphore is no more needed, its <code>shutdown()</code> method has to be called.</p> */ package org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent;