Good example of livelock?

Question

Here's a very simple Java example of livelock where a husband and wife are trying to eat soup, but only have one spoon between them. Each spouse is too polite, and will pass the spoon if the other has not yet eaten.

public class Livelock {
    static class Spoon {
        private Diner owner;
        public Spoon(Diner d) { owner = d; }
        public Diner getOwner() { return owner; }
        public synchronized void setOwner(Diner d) { owner = d; }
        public synchronized void use() { 
            System.out.printf("%s has eaten!", owner.name); 
        }
    }
    
    static class Diner {
        private String name;
        private boolean isHungry;
        
        public Diner(String n) { name = n; isHungry = true; }       
        public String getName() { return name; }
        public boolean isHungry() { return isHungry; }
        
        public void eatWith(Spoon spoon, Diner spouse) {
            while (isHungry) {
                // Don't have the spoon, so wait patiently for spouse.
                if (spoon.owner != this) {
                    try { Thread.sleep(1); } 
                    catch(InterruptedException e) { continue; }
                    continue;
                }                       
            
                // If spouse is hungry, insist upon passing the spoon.
                if (spouse.isHungry()) {                    
                    System.out.printf(
                        "%s: You eat first my darling %s!%n", 
                        name, spouse.getName());
                    spoon.setOwner(spouse);
                    continue;
                }
                
                // Spouse wasn't hungry, so finally eat
                spoon.use();
                isHungry = false;               
                System.out.printf(
                    "%s: I am stuffed, my darling %s!%n", 
                    name, spouse.getName());                
                spoon.setOwner(spouse);
            }
        }
    }
    
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        final Diner husband = new Diner("Bob");
        final Diner wife = new Diner("Alice");
        
        final Spoon s = new Spoon(husband);
        
        new Thread(new Runnable() { 
            public void run() { husband.eatWith(s, wife); }   
        }).start();

        new Thread(new Runnable() { 
            public void run() { wife.eatWith(s, husband); } 
        }).start();
    }
}

Run the program and you'll get:

Bob: You eat first my darling Alice!
Alice: You eat first my darling Bob!
Bob: You eat first my darling Alice!
Alice: You eat first my darling Bob!
Bob: You eat first my darling Alice!
Alice: You eat first my darling Bob!
...

This will go on forever if uninterrupted. This is a livelock because both Alice and Bob are repeatedly asking each other to go first in an infinite loop (hence live). In a deadlock situation, both Alice and Bob would simply be frozen waiting on each other to go first — they won't be doing anything except wait (hence dead).

Flippant comments aside, one example which is known to come up is in code which tries to detect and handle deadlock situations. If two threads detect a deadlock, and try to "step aside" for each other, without care they will end up being stuck in a loop always "stepping aside" and never managing to move forwards.

By "step aside" I mean that they would release the lock and attempt to let the other one acquire it. We might imagine the situation with two threads doing this (pseudocode):

// thread 1
getLocks12(lock1, lock2)
{
  lock1.lock();
  while (lock2.locked())
  {
    // attempt to step aside for the other thread
    lock1.unlock();
    wait();
    lock1.lock();
  }
  lock2.lock();
}

// thread 2
getLocks21(lock1, lock2)
{
  lock2.lock();
  while (lock1.locked())
  {
    // attempt to step aside for the other thread
    lock2.unlock();
    wait();
    lock2.lock();
  }
  lock1.lock();
}

Race conditions aside, what we have here is a situation where both threads, if they enter at the same time will end up running in the inner loop without proceeding. Obviously this is a simplified example. A naiive fix would be to put some kind of randomness in the amount of time the threads would wait.

The proper fix is to always respect the lock heirarchy. Pick an order in which you acquire the locks and stick to that. For example if both threads always acquire lock1 before lock2, then there is no possibility of deadlock.

As there is no answer marked as accepted answer, I have attempted to create live lock example;

Original program was written by me in Apr 2012 to learn various concept of multithreading. This time I have modified it to create deadlock, race condition, livelock etc.

So let's understand the problem statement first;

Cookie Maker Problem

There are some ingredient containers: ChocoPowederContainer, WheatPowderContainer. CookieMaker takes some amount of powder from ingredient containers to bake a Cookie. If a cookie maker finds a container empty it checks for another container to save time. And waits until Filler fills the required container. There is a Filler who checks container on regular interval and fills some quantity if a container needs it.

Please check the complete code on github;

Let me explain you implementation in brief.

• I start Filler as daemon thread. So it'll keep filling containers on regular interval. To fill a container first it locks the container -> check if it needs some powder -> fills it -> signal all makers who are waiting for it -> unlock container.
• I create CookieMaker and set that it can bake up to 8 cookies in parallel. And I start 8 threads to bake cookies.
• Each maker thread creates 2 callable sub-thread to take powder from containers.
• sub-thread takes a lock on a container and check if it has enough powder. If not, wait for some time. Once Filler fills the container, it takes the powder, and unlock the container.
• Now it completes other activities like: making mixture and baking etc.

Let's have a look in the code:

CookieMaker.java

private Integer getMaterial(final Ingredient ingredient) throws Exception{
        :
        container.lock();
        while (!container.getIngredient(quantity)) {
            container.empty.await(1000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
            //Thread.sleep(500); //For deadlock
        }
        container.unlock();
        :
}

IngredientContainer.java

public boolean getIngredient(int n) throws Exception {
    :
    lock();
    if (quantityHeld >= n) {
        TimeUnit.SECONDS.sleep(2);
        quantityHeld -= n;
        unlock();
        return true;
    }
    unlock();
    return false;
}

Everything runs fine until Filler is filling the containers. But if I forget to start the filler, or filler goes on unexpected leave, sub-threads keep changing their states to allow other maker to go and check the container.

I have also create a daemon ThreadTracer which keeps watch on thread states and deadlocks. This the output from console;

2016-09-12 21:31:45.065 :: [Maker_0:WAITING, Maker_1:WAITING, Maker_2:WAITING, Maker_3:WAITING, Maker_4:WAITING, Maker_5:WAITING, Maker_6:WAITING, Maker_7:WAITING, pool-7-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-7-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-2:RUNNABLE, pool-3-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING]
2016-09-12 21:31:45.065 :: [Maker_0:WAITING, Maker_1:WAITING, Maker_2:WAITING, Maker_3:WAITING, Maker_4:WAITING, Maker_5:WAITING, Maker_6:WAITING, Maker_7:WAITING, pool-7-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-7-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING]
WheatPowder Container has 0 only.
2016-09-12 21:31:45.082 :: [Maker_0:WAITING, Maker_1:WAITING, Maker_2:WAITING, Maker_3:WAITING, Maker_4:WAITING, Maker_5:WAITING, Maker_6:WAITING, Maker_7:WAITING, pool-7-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-7-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-2:RUNNABLE]
2016-09-12 21:31:45.082 :: [Maker_0:WAITING, Maker_1:WAITING, Maker_2:WAITING, Maker_3:WAITING, Maker_4:WAITING, Maker_5:WAITING, Maker_6:WAITING, Maker_7:WAITING, pool-7-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-7-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-8-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-6-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-5-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-1-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-1:TIMED_WAITING, pool-4-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-3-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING, pool-2-thread-2:TIMED_WAITING]

You'll notice that sub-threads and changing their states and waiting.

A real (albeit without exact code) example is two competing processes live locking in an attempt to correct for a SQL server deadlock, with each process using the same wait-retry algorithm for retrying. While it's the luck of timing, I have seen this happen on separate machines with similar performance characteristics in response to a message added to an EMS topic (e.g. saving an update of a single object graph more than once), and not being able to control the lock order.

A good solution in this case would be to have competing consumers (prevent duplicate processing as high up in the chain as possible by partitioning the work on unrelated objects).

A less desirable (ok, dirty-hack) solution is to break the timing bad luck (kind of force differences in processing) in advance or break it after deadlock by using different algorithms or some element of randomness. This could still have issues because its possible the lock taking order is "sticky" for each process, and this takes a certain minimum of time not accounted for in the wait-retry.

Yet another solution (at least for SQL Server) is to try a different isolation level (e.g. snapshot).

I coded up the example of 2 persons passing in a corridor. The two threads will avoid each other as soon as they realise their directions are the same.

public class LiveLock {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        Object left = new Object();
        Object right = new Object();
        Pedestrian one = new Pedestrian(left, right, 0); //one's left is one's left
        Pedestrian two = new Pedestrian(right, left, 1); //one's left is two's right, so have to swap order
        one.setOther(two);
        two.setOther(one);
        one.start();
        two.start();
    }
}

class Pedestrian extends Thread {
    private Object l;
    private Object r;
    private Pedestrian other;
    private Object current;

    Pedestrian (Object left, Object right, int firstDirection) {
        l = left;
        r = right;
        if (firstDirection==0) {
            current = l;
        }
        else {
            current = r;
        }
    }

    void setOther(Pedestrian otherP) {
        other = otherP;
    }

    Object getDirection() {
        return current;
    }

    Object getOppositeDirection() {
        if (current.equals(l)) {
            return r;
        }
        else {
            return l;
        }
    }

    void switchDirection() throws InterruptedException {
        Thread.sleep(100);
        current = getOppositeDirection();
        System.out.println(Thread.currentThread().getName() + " is stepping aside.");
    }

    public void run() {
        while (getDirection().equals(other.getDirection())) {
            try {
                switchDirection();
                Thread.sleep(100);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) {}
        }
    }
} 

C# version of jelbourn's code:

using System;
using System.Runtime.CompilerServices;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace LiveLockExample
{
    static class Program
    {
        public static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            var husband = new Diner("Bob");
            var wife = new Diner("Alice");

            var s = new Spoon(husband);

            Task.WaitAll(
                Task.Run(() => husband.EatWith(s, wife)),
                Task.Run(() => wife.EatWith(s, husband))
                );
        }

        public class Spoon
        {
            public Spoon(Diner diner)
            {
                Owner = diner;
            }


            public Diner Owner { get; private set; }

            [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.Synchronized)]
            public void SetOwner(Diner d) { Owner = d; }

            [MethodImpl(MethodImplOptions.Synchronized)]
            public void Use()
            {
                Console.WriteLine("{0} has eaten!", Owner.Name);
            }
        }

        public class Diner
        {
            public Diner(string n)
            {
                Name = n;
                IsHungry = true;
            }

            public string Name { get; private set; }

            private bool IsHungry { get; set; }

            public void EatWith(Spoon spoon, Diner spouse)
            {
                while (IsHungry)
                {
                    // Don't have the spoon, so wait patiently for spouse.
                    if (spoon.Owner != this)
                    {
                        try
                        {
                            Thread.Sleep(1);
                        }
                        catch (ThreadInterruptedException e)
                        {
                        }

                        continue;
                    }

                    // If spouse is hungry, insist upon passing the spoon.
                    if (spouse.IsHungry)
                    {
                        Console.WriteLine("{0}: You eat first my darling {1}!", Name, spouse.Name);
                        spoon.SetOwner(spouse);
                        continue;
                    }

                    // Spouse wasn't hungry, so finally eat
                    spoon.Use();
                    IsHungry = false;
                    Console.WriteLine("{0}: I am stuffed, my darling {1}!", Name, spouse.Name);
                    spoon.SetOwner(spouse);
                }
            }
        }
    }
}

Consider a UNIX system having 50 process slots.

Ten programs are running, each of which having to create 6 (sub)processes.

After each process has created 4 processes, the 10 original processes and the 40 new processes have exhausted the table. Each of the 10 original processes now sits in an endless loop forking and failing – which is aptly the situation of a livelock. The probability of this happening is very little but it could happen.