I've stumbled upon this interesting tutorial on multiple client-server chat model. I understood everything except for one thing. In the implementation of class MultiThreadChatServerSync, he explains that we need to synchronize parts of the code because of the different threads that are sharing the same resource which is the field
private final clientThread[] threads;
I've read plenty of articles on how synchronized(this) works. How is this code synchronizing the blocks of statement if 'this' refers to an instance of a thread? Let's say thread[0] enters a synchronized(this) statement so it obtains the monitor of itself. Meanwhile thread[1] enters a synchronized(this) statement aswell but it wouldn't get blocked because it would be obtaining the monitor of its own instance and not thread[0]'s monitor. Can someone explain to me why this code is synchronized? Am I missing something?
Here is a link to the article. I am unable to link to the specific part. So just search for the sentence 'public class MultiThreadChatServerSync'. http://makemobiapps.blogspot.com/p/multiple-client-server-chat-programming.html
Here is the code for those who cannot access the webpage.
import java.io.DataInputStream;
import java.io.PrintStream;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
/*
* A chat server that delivers public and private messages.
*/
public class MultiThreadChatServerSync {
// The server socket.
private static ServerSocket serverSocket = null;
// The client socket.
private static Socket clientSocket = null;
// This chat server can accept up to maxClientsCount clients' connections.
private static final int maxClientsCount = 10;
private static final clientThread[] threads = new clientThread[maxClientsCount];
public static void main(String args[]) {
// The default port number.
int portNumber = 2222;
if (args.length < 1) {
System.out.println("Usage: java MultiThreadChatServerSync <portNumber>\n" + "Now using port number=" + portNumber);
} else {
portNumber = Integer.valueOf(args[0]).intValue();
}
/*
* Open a server socket on the portNumber (default 2222). Note that we can
* not choose a port less than 1023 if we are not privileged users (root).
*/
try {
serverSocket = new ServerSocket(portNumber);
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
/*
* Create a client socket for each connection and pass it to a new client
* thread.
*/
while (true) {
try {
clientSocket = serverSocket.accept();
int i = 0;
for (i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] == null) {
(threads[i] = new clientThread(clientSocket, threads)).start();
break;
}
}
if (i == maxClientsCount) {
PrintStream os = new PrintStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
os.println("Server too busy. Try later.");
os.close();
clientSocket.close();
}
} catch (IOException e) {
System.out.println(e);
}
}
}
}
/*
* The chat client thread. This client thread opens the input and the output
* streams for a particular client, ask the client's name, informs all the
* clients connected to the server about the fact that a new client has joined
* the chat room, and as long as it receive data, echos that data back to all
* other clients. The thread broadcast the incoming messages to all clients and
* routes the private message to the particular client. When a client leaves the
* chat room this thread informs also all the clients about that and terminates.
*/
class clientThread extends Thread {
private String clientName = null;
private DataInputStream is = null;
private PrintStream os = null;
private Socket clientSocket = null;
private final clientThread[] threads;
private int maxClientsCount;
public clientThread(Socket clientSocket, clientThread[] threads) {
this.clientSocket = clientSocket;
this.threads = threads;
maxClientsCount = threads.length;
}
public void run() {
int maxClientsCount = this.maxClientsCount;
clientThread[] threads = this.threads;
try {
/*
* Create input and output streams for this client.
*/
is = new DataInputStream(clientSocket.getInputStream());
os = new PrintStream(clientSocket.getOutputStream());
String name;
while (true) {
os.println("Enter your name.");
name = is.readLine().trim();
if (name.indexOf('@') == -1) {
break;
} else {
os.println("The name should not contain '@' character.");
}
}
/* Welcome the new the client. */
os.println("Welcome " + name
+ " to our chat room.\nTo leave enter /quit in a new line.");
synchronized (this) {
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] != null && threads[i] == this) {
clientName = "@" + name;
break;
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] != null && threads[i] != this) {
threads[i].os.println("*** A new user " + name + " entered the chat room !!! ***");
}
}
}
/* Start the conversation. */
while (true) {
String line = is.readLine();
if (line.startsWith("/quit")) {
break;
}
/* If the message is private sent it to the given client. */
if (line.startsWith("@")) {
String[] words = line.split("\\s", 2);
if (words.length > 1 && words[1] != null) {
words[1] = words[1].trim();
if (!words[1].isEmpty()) {
synchronized (this) {
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] != null && threads[i] != this
&& threads[i].clientName != null
&& threads[i].clientName.equals(words[0])) {
threads[i].os.println("<" + name + "> " + words[1]);
/*
* Echo this message to let the client know the private
* message was sent.
*/
this.os.println(">" + name + "> " + words[1]);
break;
}
}
}
}
}
} else {
/* The message is public, broadcast it to all other clients. */
synchronized (this) {
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] != null && threads[i].clientName != null) {
threads[i].os.println("<" + name + "> " + line);
}
}
}
}
}
synchronized (this) {
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] != null && threads[i] != this && threads[i].clientName != null) {
threads[i].os.println("*** The user " + name + " is leaving the chat room !!! ***");
}
}
}
os.println("*** Bye " + name + " ***");
/*
* Clean up. Set the current thread variable to null so that a new client
* could be accepted by the server.
*/
synchronized (this) {
for (int i = 0; i < maxClientsCount; i++) {
if (threads[i] == this) {
threads[i] = null;
}
}
}
/*
* Close the output stream, close the input stream, close the socket.
*/
is.close();
os.close();
clientSocket.close();
} catch (IOException e) {
}
}
}
If you take it out of context, that statement is blatantly false.
The only context that could make it true is if the author is talking about all of the
synchronized(this) {...}statements in some particular example, and all of them are in instance methods belonging to the same class, and only one instance of the class is ever in use at any given time.