Interface Lock
- All Known Implementing Classes:
ReentrantLock
,ReentrantReadWriteLock.ReadLock
,ReentrantReadWriteLock.WriteLock
Lock
implementations provide more extensive locking
operations than can be obtained using synchronized
methods
and statements. They allow more flexible structuring, may have
quite different properties, and may support multiple associated
Condition
objects.
A lock is a tool for controlling access to a shared resource by
multiple threads. Commonly, a lock provides exclusive access to a
shared resource: only one thread at a time can acquire the lock and
all access to the shared resource requires that the lock be
acquired first. However, some locks may allow concurrent access to
a shared resource, such as the read lock of a ReadWriteLock
.
The use of synchronized
methods or statements provides
access to the implicit monitor lock associated with every object, but
forces all lock acquisition and release to occur in a block-structured way:
when multiple locks are acquired they must be released in the opposite
order, and all locks must be released in the same lexical scope in which
they were acquired.
While the scoping mechanism for synchronized
methods
and statements makes it much easier to program with monitor locks,
and helps avoid many common programming errors involving locks,
there are occasions where you need to work with locks in a more
flexible way. For example, some algorithms for traversing
concurrently accessed data structures require the use of
"hand-over-hand" or "chain locking": you
acquire the lock of node A, then node B, then release A and acquire
C, then release B and acquire D and so on. Implementations of the
Lock
interface enable the use of such techniques by
allowing a lock to be acquired and released in different scopes,
and allowing multiple locks to be acquired and released in any
order.
With this increased flexibility comes additional
responsibility. The absence of block-structured locking removes the
automatic release of locks that occurs with synchronized
methods and statements. In most cases, the following idiom
should be used:
Lock l = ...;
l.lock();
try {
// access the resource protected by this lock
} finally {
l.unlock();
}
When locking and unlocking occur in different scopes, care must be
taken to ensure that all code that is executed while the lock is
held is protected by try-finally or try-catch to ensure that the
lock is released when necessary.
Lock
implementations provide additional functionality
over the use of synchronized
methods and statements by
providing a non-blocking attempt to acquire a lock (tryLock()
), an attempt to acquire the lock that can be
interrupted (lockInterruptibly()
, and an attempt to acquire
the lock that can timeout (tryLock(long, TimeUnit)
).
A Lock
class can also provide behavior and semantics
that is quite different from that of the implicit monitor lock,
such as guaranteed ordering, non-reentrant usage, or deadlock
detection. If an implementation provides such specialized semantics
then the implementation must document those semantics.
Note that Lock
instances are just normal objects and can
themselves be used as the target in a synchronized
statement.
Acquiring the
monitor lock of a Lock
instance has no specified relationship
with invoking any of the lock()
methods of that instance.
It is recommended that to avoid confusion you never use Lock
instances in this way, except within their own implementation.
Except where noted, passing a null
value for any
parameter will result in a NullPointerException
being
thrown.
Memory Synchronization
All Lock
implementations must enforce the same
memory synchronization semantics as provided by the built-in monitor
lock, as described in
Chapter 17 of
The Java Language Specification:
- A successful
lock
operation has the same memory synchronization effects as a successful Lock action. - A successful
unlock
operation has the same memory synchronization effects as a successful Unlock action.
Implementation Considerations
The three forms of lock acquisition (interruptible,
non-interruptible, and timed) may differ in their performance
characteristics, ordering guarantees, or other implementation
qualities. Further, the ability to interrupt the ongoing
acquisition of a lock may not be available in a given Lock
class. Consequently, an implementation is not required to define
exactly the same guarantees or semantics for all three forms of
lock acquisition, nor is it required to support interruption of an
ongoing lock acquisition. An implementation is required to clearly
document the semantics and guarantees provided by each of the
locking methods. It must also obey the interruption semantics as
defined in this interface, to the extent that interruption of lock
acquisition is supported: which is either totally, or only on
method entry.
As interruption generally implies cancellation, and checks for interruption are often infrequent, an implementation can favor responding to an interrupt over normal method return. This is true even if it can be shown that the interrupt occurred after another action may have unblocked the thread. An implementation should document this behavior.
- See Java Language Specification:
-
17.4 Memory Model
- Since:
- 1.5
- See Also:
-
Method Summary
Modifier and TypeMethodDescriptionvoid
lock()
Acquires the lock.void
Acquires the lock unless the current thread is interrupted.Returns a newCondition
instance that is bound to thisLock
instance.boolean
tryLock()
Acquires the lock only if it is free at the time of invocation.boolean
Acquires the lock if it is free within the given waiting time and the current thread has not been interrupted.void
unlock()
Releases the lock.
-
Method Details
-
lock
void lock()Acquires the lock.If the lock is not available then the current thread becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until the lock has been acquired.
Implementation Considerations
A
Lock
implementation may be able to detect erroneous use of the lock, such as an invocation that would cause deadlock, and may throw an (unchecked) exception in such circumstances. The circumstances and the exception type must be documented by thatLock
implementation. -
lockInterruptibly
Acquires the lock unless the current thread is interrupted.Acquires the lock if it is available and returns immediately.
If the lock is not available then the current thread becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of two things happens:
- The lock is acquired by the current thread; or
- Some other thread interrupts the current thread, and interruption of lock acquisition is supported.
If the current thread:
- has its interrupted status set on entry to this method; or
- is interrupted while acquiring the lock, and interruption of lock acquisition is supported,
InterruptedException
is thrown and the current thread's interrupted status is cleared.Implementation Considerations
The ability to interrupt a lock acquisition in some implementations may not be possible, and if possible may be an expensive operation. The programmer should be aware that this may be the case. An implementation should document when this is the case.
An implementation can favor responding to an interrupt over normal method return.
A
Lock
implementation may be able to detect erroneous use of the lock, such as an invocation that would cause deadlock, and may throw an (unchecked) exception in such circumstances. The circumstances and the exception type must be documented by thatLock
implementation.- Throws:
InterruptedException
- if the current thread is interrupted while acquiring the lock (and interruption of lock acquisition is supported)
-
tryLock
boolean tryLock()Acquires the lock only if it is free at the time of invocation.Acquires the lock if it is available and returns immediately with the value
true
. If the lock is not available then this method will return immediately with the valuefalse
.A typical usage idiom for this method would be:
Lock lock = ...; if (lock.tryLock()) { try { // manipulate protected state } finally { lock.unlock(); } } else { // perform alternative actions }
- Returns:
true
if the lock was acquired andfalse
otherwise
-
tryLock
Acquires the lock if it is free within the given waiting time and the current thread has not been interrupted.If the lock is available this method returns immediately with the value
true
. If the lock is not available then the current thread becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of three things happens:- The lock is acquired by the current thread; or
- Some other thread interrupts the current thread, and interruption of lock acquisition is supported; or
- The specified waiting time elapses
If the lock is acquired then the value
true
is returned.If the current thread:
- has its interrupted status set on entry to this method; or
- is interrupted while acquiring the lock, and interruption of lock acquisition is supported,
InterruptedException
is thrown and the current thread's interrupted status is cleared.If the specified waiting time elapses then the value
false
is returned. If the time is less than or equal to zero, the method will not wait at all.Implementation Considerations
The ability to interrupt a lock acquisition in some implementations may not be possible, and if possible may be an expensive operation. The programmer should be aware that this may be the case. An implementation should document when this is the case.
An implementation can favor responding to an interrupt over normal method return, or reporting a timeout.
A
Lock
implementation may be able to detect erroneous use of the lock, such as an invocation that would cause deadlock, and may throw an (unchecked) exception in such circumstances. The circumstances and the exception type must be documented by thatLock
implementation.- Parameters:
time
- the maximum time to wait for the lockunit
- the time unit of thetime
argument- Returns:
true
if the lock was acquired andfalse
if the waiting time elapsed before the lock was acquired- Throws:
InterruptedException
- if the current thread is interrupted while acquiring the lock (and interruption of lock acquisition is supported)
-
unlock
void unlock()Releases the lock.Implementation Considerations
A
Lock
implementation will usually impose restrictions on which thread can release a lock (typically only the holder of the lock can release it) and may throw an (unchecked) exception if the restriction is violated. Any restrictions and the exception type must be documented by thatLock
implementation. -
newCondition
Condition newCondition()Returns a newCondition
instance that is bound to thisLock
instance.Before waiting on the condition the lock must be held by the current thread. A call to
Condition.await()
will atomically release the lock before waiting and re-acquire the lock before the wait returns.Implementation Considerations
The exact operation of the
Condition
instance depends on theLock
implementation and must be documented by that implementation.- Returns:
- A new
Condition
instance for thisLock
instance - Throws:
UnsupportedOperationException
- if thisLock
implementation does not support conditions
-