File locking
File locking, introduced in JDK 1.4, allows you to synchronize access to a file as a shared resource. However, the two threads that contend for the same file may be in different JVMs, or one may be a Java thread and the other some native thread in the operating system. The file locks are visible to other operating system processes because Java file locking maps directly to the native operating system locking facility.
Here is a simple example of file locking.
//: c12:FileLocking.java
// {Clean: file.txt}
import java.io.FileOutputStream;
import java.nio.channels.*;
public class FileLocking {
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
FileOutputStream fos= new FileOutputStream("file.txt");
FileLock fl = fos.getChannel().tryLock();
if(fl != null) {
System.out.println("Locked File");
Thread.sleep(100);
fl.release();
System.out.println("Released Lock");
}
fos.close();
}
} ///:~
You get a FileLock on the entire file by calling either tryLock( ) or lock( ) on a FileChannel. (SocketChannel, DatagramChannel, and ServerSocketChannel do not need locking since they are inherently single-process entities; you don’t generally share a network socket between two processes.) tryLock( ) is non-blocking. It tries to grab the lock, but if it cannot (when some other process already holds the same lock and it is not shared), it simply returns from the method call. lock( ) blocks until the lock is acquired, or the thread that invoked lock( ) is interrupted, or the channel on which the lock( ) method is called is closed. A lock is released using FileLock.release( ).
It is also possible to lock a part of the file by using
tryLock(long position, long size, boolean shared)
or
lock(long position, long size, boolean shared)
which locks the region (size - position). The third argument specifies whether this lock is shared.
Although the zero-argument locking methods adapt to changes in the size of a file, locks with a fixed size do not change if the file size changes. If a lock is acquired for a region from position to position+size and the file increases beyond position+size, then the section beyond position+size is not locked. The zero-argument locking methods lock the entire file, even if it grows.
Support for exclusive or shared locks must be provided by the underlying operating system. If the operating system does not support shared locks and a request is made for one, an exclusive lock is used instead. The type of lock (shared or exclusive) can be queried using FileLock.isShared( ).
Locking portions of a mapped file
As mentioned earlier, file mapping is typically used for very large files. One thing that you may need to do with such a large file is to lock portions of it so that other processes may modify unlocked parts of the file. This is something that happens, for example, with a database, so that it can be available to many users at once.
Here’s an example that has two threads, each of which locks a distinct portion of a file:
//: c12:LockingMappedFiles.java
// Locking portions of a mapped file.
// {RunByHand}
// {Clean: test.dat}
import java.io.*;
import java.nio.*;
import java.nio.channels.*;
public class LockingMappedFiles {
static final int LENGTH = 0x8FFFFFF; // 128 Mb
static FileChannel fc;
public static void main(String[] args) throws Exception {
fc =
new RandomAccessFile("test.dat", "rw").getChannel();
MappedByteBuffer out =
fc.map(FileChannel.MapMode.READ_WRITE, 0, LENGTH);
for(int i = 0; i < LENGTH; i++)
out.put((byte)'x');
new LockAndModify(out, 0, 0 + LENGTH/3);
new LockAndModify(out, LENGTH/2, LENGTH/2 + LENGTH/4);
}
private static class LockAndModify extends Thread {
private ByteBuffer buff;
private int start, end;
LockAndModify(ByteBuffer mbb, int start, int end) {
this.start = start;
this.end = end;
mbb.limit(end);
mbb.position(start);
buff = mbb.slice();
start();
}
public void run() {
try {
// Exclusive lock with no overlap:
FileLock fl = fc.lock(start, end, false);
System.out.println("Locked: "+ start +" to "+ end);
// Perform modification:
while(buff.position() < buff.limit() - 1)
buff.put((byte)(buff.get() + 1));
fl.release();
System.out.println("Released: "+start+" to "+ end);
} catch(IOException e) {
throw new RuntimeException(e);
}
}
}
} ///:~
The LockAndModify thread class sets up the buffer region and creates a slice( ) to be modified, and in run( ), the lock is acquired on the file channel (you can’t acquire a lock on the buffer—only the channel). The call to lock( ) is very similar to acquiring a threading lock on an object—you now have a “critical section” with exclusive access to that portion of the file.
The locks are automatically released when the JVM exits, or the channel on which it was acquired is closed, but you can also explicitly call release( ) on the FileLock object, as shown here.
