Synchronized blocks in Java are reentrant. This means, that if a Java thread enters a synchronized block of code, and thereby take the lock on the monitor object the block is synchronized on, the thread can enter other Java code blocks synchronized on the same monitor object.
public class Reentrant{
public synchronized outer(){
inner();
}
public synchronized inner(){
//do something
}
}
both outer() and inner() are declared synchronized, which in Java is equivalent to a synchronized(this) block. If a thread calls outer() there is no problem calling inner() from inside outer(), since both methods (or blocks) are synchronized on the same monitor object ("this"). If a thread already holds the lock on a monitor object, it has access to all blocks synchronized on the same monitor object. This is called reentrance. The thread can reenter any block of code for which it already holds the lock.
But if you have your own custom Lock class then you can create deadlock in nested locking on same monitor if its not reenterant.
public class Lock{
private boolean isLocked = false;
public synchronized void lock()
throws InterruptedException{
while(isLocked){
wait();
}
isLocked = true;
}
public synchronized void unlock(){
isLocked = false;
notify();
}
}
public class Reentrant2{
Lock lock = new Lock();
public outer(){
lock.lock();
inner();
lock.unlock();
}
public synchronized inner(){
lock.lock();
//do something
lock.unlock();
}
}
A thread calling outer() will first lock the Lock instance. Then it will call inner(). Inside the inner() method the thread will again try to lock the Lock instance. This will fail (meaning the thread will be blocked), since the Lock instance was locked already in the outer() method.
To make the Lock class reentrant we need to make a small change:
public class Lock{
boolean isLocked = false;
Thread lockedBy = null;
int lockedCount = 0;
public synchronized void lock()
throws InterruptedException{
Thread callingThread = Thread.currentThread();
while(isLocked && lockedBy != callingThread){
wait();
}
isLocked = true;
lockedCount++;
lockedBy = callingThread;
}
public synchronized void unlock(){
if(Thread.curentThread() == this.lockedBy){
lockedCount--;
if(lockedCount == 0){
isLocked = false;
notify();
}
}
}
...
}
Notice how the while loop (spin lock) now also takes the thread that locked the Lock instance into consideration. If either the lock is unlocked (isLocked = false) or the calling thread is the thread that locked the Lock instance, the while loop will not execute, and the thread calling lock() will be allowed to exit the method.
Additionally, we need to count the number of times the lock has been locked by the same thread. Otherwise, a single call to unlock() will unlock the lock, even if the lock has been locked multiple times. We don't want the lock to be unloced until the thread that locked it, has executed the same amount of unlock() calls as lock() calls.
The Lock class is now ReentrantLock.
In java.util.concurrent package you have ReentrantLock which can be used for reentrance.
check this link to read more about this: http://tutorials.jenkov.com/java-concurrency/locks.html
