From 519725bb3c075ee2462c929f5997cb068e18466a Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Ondřej Surý Date: Mon, 26 Mar 2012 16:50:58 +0200 Subject: Imported Upstream version 2012.03.22 --- doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html | 79 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ 1 file changed, 79 insertions(+) create mode 100644 doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html (limited to 'doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html') diff --git a/doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html b/doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html new file mode 100644 index 000000000..63c8cd59e --- /dev/null +++ b/doc/articles/concurrency_patterns.html @@ -0,0 +1,79 @@ + + +

+Concurrent programming has its own idioms. A good example is timeouts. Although +Go's channels do not support them directly, they are easy to implement. Say we +want to receive from the channel ch, but want to wait at most one +second for the value to arrive. We would start by creating a signalling channel +and launching a goroutine that sleeps before sending on the channel: +

+ +{{code "/doc/progs/timeout1.go" `/timeout :=/` `/STOP/`}} + +

+We can then use a select statement to receive from either +ch or timeout. If nothing arrives on ch +after one second, the timeout case is selected and the attempt to read from +ch is abandoned. +

+ +{{code "/doc/progs/timeout1.go" `/select {/` `/STOP/`}} + +

+The timeout channel is buffered with space for 1 value, allowing +the timeout goroutine to send to the channel and then exit. The goroutine +doesn't know (or care) whether the value is received. This means the goroutine +won't hang around forever if the ch receive happens before the +timeout is reached. The timeout channel will eventually be +deallocated by the garbage collector. +

+ +

+(In this example we used time.Sleep to demonstrate the mechanics +of goroutines and channels. In real programs you should use +time.After, a function that returns +a channel and sends on that channel after the specified duration.) +

+ +

+Let's look at another variation of this pattern. In this example we have a +program that reads from multiple replicated databases simultaneously. The +program needs only one of the answers, and it should accept the answer that +arrives first. +

+ +

+The function Query takes a slice of database connections and a +query string. It queries each of the databases in parallel and +returns the first response it receives: +

+ +{{code "/doc/progs/timeout2.go" `/func Query/` `/STOP/`}} + +

+In this example, the closure does a non-blocking send, which it achieves by +using the send operation in select statement with a +default case. If the send cannot go through immediately the +default case will be selected. Making the send non-blocking guarantees that +none of the goroutines launched in the loop will hang around. However, if the +result arrives before the main function has made it to the receive, the send +could fail since no one is ready. +

+ +

+This problem is a textbook of example of what is known as a +race condition, but +the fix is trivial. We just make sure to buffer the channel ch (by +adding the buffer length as the second argument to make), +guaranteeing that the first send has a place to put the value. This ensures the +send will always succeed, and the first value to arrive will be retrieved +regardless of the order of execution. +

+ +

+These two examples demonstrate the simplicity with which Go can express complex +interactions between goroutines. +

-- cgit v1.2.3