Groovy Goodness: Apply Read and Write Locking

When we write applications with concurrency needs we can use the ReentrantReadWriteLock class to specify a lock on specific methods. Normally we have to add a field to our class of the type ReentrantReadWriteLock and then write code to get a read lock or write lock, do our stuff and finally release the lock again. Since Groovy 1.8 we can use the AST transformation annotations duo WithReadLock and WithWriteLock. Groovy will add a lock field and adds the code to acquire and release the locks again in our compiled class file. We don't have to write this code ourselves anymore.

import groovy.transform.*

class Bucket {
    final def items = []

    @WithWriteLock
    void add(String item) {
        items << item
    }

    @WithReadLock
    List getAllItems() {
        items
    }
}

def bucket = new Bucket()

// Create read/write threads that use the same
// bucket instance.
def allThreads = []
3.times {
    allThreads << Thread.start {
        5.times {
            bucket.add Thread.currentThread().name + ': Groovy rocks'
            println "> ${Thread.currentThread().name} adds item to bucket."
            sleep 100
        }
    }
    
    allThreads << Thread.start {
        3.times {
            int numberOfItems = bucket.allItems.size()
            println "< ${Thread.currentThread().name} says $numberOfItems items are in the bucket."
            sleep 150
        }
    }
}

allThreads.each { it.join() }

assert bucket.items.size() == 15
println bucket.items

The following output shows the results of running the code. This output will be different each time we run the code.

> Thread-482 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-483 says 1 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-484 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-485 says 2 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-486 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-487 says 3 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-482 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-484 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-486 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-483 says 6 items are in the bucket.
< Thread-485 says 6 items are in the bucket.
< Thread-487 says 6 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-482 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-484 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-486 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-482 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-483 says 10 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-484 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-485 says 11 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-486 adds item to bucket.
< Thread-487 says 12 items are in the bucket.
> Thread-482 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-484 adds item to bucket.
> Thread-486 adds item to bucket.
[Thread-482: Groovy rocks, Thread-484: Groovy rocks, Thread-486: Groovy rocks, Thread-482: Groovy rocks, Thread-484: Groovy rocks, Thread-486: Groovy rocks, Thread-482: Groovy rocks, Thread-484: Groovy rocks, Thread-486: Groovy rocks, Thread-482: Groovy rocks, Thread-484: Groovy rocks, Thread-486: Groovy rocks, Thread-482: Groovy rocks, Thread-484: Groovy rocks, Thread-486: Groovy rocks]

The annotations also accept a name of an explicit lock field we have defined in our class ourselves. So we can use multiple locks within the same class.

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May 28, 2011

Groovy Goodness: Apply Read and Write Locking