All Downloads are FREE. Search and download functionalities are using the official Maven repository.

org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.package-info Maven / Gradle / Ivy

There is a newer version: 2.12.15
Show newest version
/*
 * 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.
 */
/**
 * 

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.

* *

* *

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: *

* *
 * 
 * public interface ConcurrentInitializer<T> {
 *    T get() throws ConcurrentException;
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

A ConcurrentInitializer 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: *

* *

{@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConstantInitializer} is a very straightforward implementation of the ConcurrentInitializer interface: * An instance is passed an object when it is constructed. * In its get() 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 ConcurrentInitializer. *

* *

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. * LazyInitializer implements the double-check idiom for an instance field as discussed in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java", 2nd edition, item 71. * It uses volatile fields to reduce the amount of synchronization. * Note that this idiom is appropriate for instance fields only. * For static fields there are superior alternatives.

* *

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 LazyInitializer comes into play. * We create a specialized subclass for creating and initializing an instance of our messaging service. * LazyInitializer declares an abstract {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.LazyInitializer#initialize() initialize()} method which we have to implement to create the messaging service object:

* *
 * 
 * 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;
 *   }
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

Now each server thread is passed a reference to a shared instance of our new MessagingServiceInitializer 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:

* *
 * 
 * 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();
 *        }
 *      }
 *    }
 *  }
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

The {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicInitializer} class is very similar to LazyInitializer. * 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 MessagingServiceInitializer into an atomic initializer by simply changing the extends declaration to refer to AtomicInitializer<MessagingService> as super class.

* *

With {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.AtomicSafeInitializer} there is yet another variant implementing the lazy initializing pattern. * Its implementation is close to AtomicInitializer; 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 LazyInitializer.

* *

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.

* *

AtomicInitializer is probably the most efficient implementation due to its lack of synchronization and further checks. * Its main drawback is that the initialize() method can be called multiple times. * In cases where this is not an issue AtomicInitializer is a good choice. * AtomicSafeInitializer and LazyInitializer both guarantee that the initialization method is called only once. * Because AtomicSafeInitializer does not use synchronization it is probably slightly more efficient than LazyInitializer, but the concrete numbers might depend on the level of concurrency.

* *

Another implementation of the ConcurrentInitializer 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 BackgroundInitializer is that it calls the initialize() 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 get() method. * get() 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.

* *

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 BackgroundInitializer can be created for this purpose:

* *
 * 
 * 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);
 *     }
 *   }
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

An application creates an instance of URLLoader and starts it. * Then it can do other things. * When it needs the content of the URL it calls the initializer's get() method:

* *
 * 
 * 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
 * 
 * 
* *

Related to BackgroundInitializer is the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.MultiBackgroundInitializer} class. * As the name implies, this class can handle multiple initializations in parallel. * The basic usage scenario is that a MultiBackgroundInitializer instance is created. * Then an arbitrary number of BackgroundInitializer 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 get() method can be called. * It waits until all initializers have finished their initialization. * get() 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.

* *

With MultiBackgroundInitializer 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 BackgroundInitializer implementations exist. * The following example fragment shows the usage of MultiBackgroundInitializer for this purpose:

* *
 * 
 * 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");
 * ...
 * 
 * 
* *

The child initializers are added to the multi initializer and are assigned a unique name. * The object returned by the get() method is then queried for the single results using these unique names.

* *

If background initializers - including MultiBackgroundInitializer - 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 ExecutorService when the initializer is constructed. * That way client code can configure the ExecutorService according to its specific needs; for instance, the number of threads available could be limited.

* *

Utility Classes

* *

Another group of classes in the new concurrent 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 ExecutionException 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 ExecutionException 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. *

* *

The {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#extractCause(java.util.concurrent.ExecutionException)} method does this work for you. * It is passed an ExecutionException 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 * (ConcurrentException is a new exception class in the o.a.c.l.concurrent package). * So if you get such a ConcurrentException, you can be sure that the original cause for the ExecutionException 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 extractCause(), but returns the unchecked exception {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentRuntimeException} instead.

* *

In addition to the extractCause() 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 ExecutionException and throw the resulting ConcurrentException or ConcurrentRuntimeException. * This makes it easy to transform an ExecutionException into a ConcurrentException ignoring unchecked exceptions:

* *
 * 
 * Future<Object> future = ...;
 * try {
 *   Object result = future.get();
 *   ...
 * } catch (ExecutionException eex) {
 *   ConcurrentUtils.handleCause(eex);
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

There is also some support for the concurrent initializers introduced in the last sub section. * The initialize() method is passed a ConcurrentInitializer object and returns the object created by this initializer. * It is null-safe. * The initializeUnchecked() method works analogously, but a ConcurrentException throws by the initializer is rethrown as a ConcurrentRuntimeException. * This is especially useful if the specific ConcurrentInitializer 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:

* *
 * 
 * ConcurrentInitializer<MyClass> initializer = ...;
 * try {
 *   MyClass obj = initializer.get();
 *   // do something with obj
 * } catch (ConcurrentException cex) {
 *   // exception handling
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

Using the {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.ConcurrentUtils#initializeUnchecked(ConcurrentInitializer)} method, this becomes:

* *
 * 
 * ConcurrentInitializer<MyClass> initializer = ...;
 * MyClass obj = ConcurrentUtils.initializeUnchecked(initializer);
 * // do something with obj
 * 
 * 
* *

Another utility class deals with the creation of threads. * When using the Executor 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 ThreadFactory, so one has to start from scratch.

* *

With {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BasicThreadFactory} Commons Lang has an implementation of ThreadFactory 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 BasicThreadFactory are created and configured using the nested {@link org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent.BasicThreadFactory.Builder} class. * The following example shows a typical usage scenario:

* *
 * 
 * BasicThreadFactory factory = new BasicThreadFactory.Builder()
 *   .namingPattern("worker-thread-%d")
 *   .daemon(true)
 *   .uncaughtExceptionHandler(myHandler)
 *   .build();
 * ExecutorService exec = Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor(factory);
 * 
 * 
* *

The nested Builder class defines some methods for configuring the new BasicThreadFactory 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 String.format(). * The placeholder %d is replaced by an increasing counter value. * An instance can wrap another ThreadFactory 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.

* *

Synchronization objects

* *

The concurrent package also provides some support for specific synchronization problems with threads.

* *

{@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.

* *

What are use cases for TimedSemaphore? * 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 TimedSemaphore 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.

* *

The following code examples demonstrate parts of the implementation of such a scenario. * First the batch application has to create an instance of TimedSemaphore and to initialize its properties with default values:

* * TimedSemaphore semaphore = new TimedSemaphore(1, TimeUnit.SECONDS, 100); * *

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.

* *
 * 
 * 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
 *     }
 *   }
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

The important line here is the call to semaphore.acquire(). * 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.

* *
 * 
 * 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);
 *   }
 * }
 * 
 * 
* *

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 acquire() calls per time frame. * When a timed semaphore is no more needed, its shutdown() method has to be called.

*/ package org.apache.commons.lang3.concurrent;




© 2015 - 2024 Weber Informatics LLC | Privacy Policy