[SmartIrc4Net]: UI Freezing - multithreading

So I've run into an issue while creating a 'Bot' to watch over one of my IRC Channels, and once the Listen() command is sent the UI is prone to freezing... Now I'm aware that this may be caused by SmartIrc4Net constantly checking for data and what not...
So I've been trying to implement it into another thread by using three of the following ways... But once I start to debug the program no 'debug' message is sent to the server, I know for a fact that the 'Bot' is connecting successfully and this is only when a new 'Thread' is not introduced to the application.
All my 'Bot' programming is separated into Class Library's, and I have tried putting it all into a 'DEBUG' application, and it yields that same annoying result.
My mind is beyong boggled and hopefully someone here has assist me with my situation, as fast as humanly possible....
(Notice: Expect responses from 13:00 / 15:30 to 24:00 GMT)
new Thread(() =>
{
while(BotConnection._IsBotConnected)
{
BotConnection.IRCBOT.Listen();
}
});
-- AND --
ThreadStart IRCThread = new ThreadStart(_IRCListen);
private static void _IRCListen()
{
BotConnection.IRCBOT.Listen();
}
-- AND --
ThreadStart ListenThread = delegate
{
BotConnection.IRCBOT.Listen();
}; new Thread(ListenThread).Start();

I ended up fixing the problem by doing the following.
ThreadStart ListenThread = delegate
{
while(BotConnection._IsBotConnected)
{
BotConnection.IRCBOT.Listen();
BotConnection.IRCBOT.RfcPing("IRC_URL_CON");
}
}; new Thread(ListenThread).Start();

Related

Cocos2d-x Multithreading sceanrio crashes the game

my scenario is simple:i made a game using cocos2d-x and i want to download images (FB and Google play) for multi player users and show them once the download is done as texture for a button.
in ideal world, things work as expected.
things get tricky when those buttons got deleted before the download is done.
so the callback function is in weird state and then i get signal 11 (SIGSEGV), code 1 (SEGV_MAPERR)
and the app crashes
This is how i implmented it
I have a Layout class called PlayerIcon. the cpp looks like this
void PlayerIcon::setPlayer(string userName, string displayName, string avatarUrl){
try {
//some code here
downloadAvatar(_userName, _avatarUrl);
//some code here
}
catch(... ){
}
}
void PlayerIcon::downloadAvatar(std::string _avatarFilePath,std::string url) {
if(!isFileExist(_avatarFilePath)) {
try {
auto downloader = new Downloader();
downloader->onFileTaskSuccess=CC_CALLBACK_1(PlayerIcon::on_download_success,this);
downloader->onTaskError=[&](const network::DownloadTask& task,int errorCode,
int errorCodeInternal,
const std::string& errorStr){
log("error while saving image");
};
downloader->createDownloadFileTask(url,_avatarFilePath,_avatarFilePath);
}
catch (exception e)
{
log("error while saving image: test");
}
} else {
//set texture for button
}
}
void PlayerIcon::on_download_success(const network::DownloadTask& task){
_isDownloading = false;
Director::getInstance()->getScheduler()-> performFunctionInCocosThread(CC_CALLBACK_0(PlayerIcon::reload_avatar,this));
}
void PlayerIcon::reload_avatar(){
try {
// setting texture in UI thread
}
catch (...) {
log("error updating avatar");
}
}
As i said, things works fine until PlayerIcon is deleted before the download is done.
i dont know what happens when the call back of the download task point to a method of un object that s deleted (or flagged for deletion).
i looked in the downloader implementation and it doesn't provide any cancellation mechanism
and i'm not sure how to handle this
Also, is it normal to have 10% crash rate on google console for a cocos2dx game
any help is really appreciated
Do you delete de Downloader in de destructor of the PlayerIcon?
there is a destroy in the apple implementation witch is trigered by the destructor.
-(void)doDestroy
{
// cancel all download task
NSEnumerator * enumeratorKey = [self.taskDict keyEnumerator];
for (NSURLSessionDownloadTask *task in enumeratorKey)
{
....
DownloaderApple::~DownloaderApple()
{
DeclareDownloaderImplVar;
[impl doDestroy];
DLLOG("Destruct DownloaderApple %p", this);
}
In the demo code of cocos2d-x: DownloaderTest.cpp they use:
std::unique_ptr<network::Downloader> downloader;
downloader.reset(new cocos2d::network::Downloader());
instead of:
auto downloader = new Downloader();
It looks like you are building this network code as part of your scene tree. If you do a replaceScene/popScene...() call, while the async network software is running in the background, this will cause the callback to disappear (the scene will be deleted from the scene-stack) and you will get a SEGFAULT from this.
If this is the way you've coded it, then you might want to extract the network code to a global object (singleton) where you queue the requests and then grab them off the internet saving the results in the global-object's output queue (or their name and location) and then let the scene code check to see if the avatar has been received yet by inquiring on the global-object and loading the avatar sprite at this point.
Note, this may be an intermittent problem which depends on the speed of your machine and the network so it may not be triggered consistently.
Another solution ...
Or you could just set your function pointers to nullptr in your PlayerIcon::~PlayerIcon() (destructor):
downloader->setOnFileTaskSuccess(nullptr);
downloader->setOnTaskProgress(nullptr);
Then there will be no attempt to call your callback functions and the SEGFAULT will be avoided (Hopefully).

Nested IMessageQueueClient publish using Servicestack InMemoryTransientMessageService

We are using InMemoryTransientMessageService to chain several one-way notification between services. We can not use Redis provider, and we do not really need it so far. Synchronous dispatching is enough.
We are experimenting problems when using a publish inside a service that is handling another publish. In pseudo-code:
FirstService.Method()
_messageQueueClient.Publish(obj);
SecondService.Any(obj)
_messageQueueClient.Publish(obj);
ThirdService.Any(obj)
The SecondMessage is never handled. In the following code of ServiceStack TransientMessageServiceBase, when the second message is processed, the service "isRunning" so it does not try to handled the second:
public virtual void Start()
{
if (isRunning) return;
isRunning = true;
this.messageHandlers = this.handlerMap.Values.ToList().ConvertAll(
x => x.CreateMessageHandler()).ToArray();
using (var mqClient = MessageFactory.CreateMessageQueueClient())
{
foreach (var handler in messageHandlers)
{
handler.Process(mqClient);
}
}
this.Stop();
}
I'm not sure about the impact of changing this behaviour in order to be able to nest/chain message publications. Do you think it is safe to remove this check? Some other ideas?
After some tests, it seems there is no problem in removing the "isRunning" control. All nested publications are executed correctly.

Async Logger. Can I lose/delay log entries?

I'm implementing my own logging framework. Following is my BaseLogger which receives the log entries and push it to the actual Logger which implements the abstract Log method.
I use the C# TPL for logging in an Async manner. I use Threads instead of TPL. (TPL task doesn't hold a real thread. So if all threads of the application end, tasks will stop as well, which will cause all 'waiting' log entries to be lost.)
public abstract class BaseLogger
{
// ... Omitted properties constructor .etc. ... //
public virtual void AddLogEntry(LogEntry entry)
{
if (!AsyncSupported)
{
// the underlying logger doesn't support Async.
// Simply call the log method and return.
Log(entry);
return;
}
// Logger supports Async.
LogAsync(entry);
}
private void LogAsync(LogEntry entry)
{
lock (LogQueueSyncRoot) // Make sure we ave a lock before accessing the queue.
{
LogQueue.Enqueue(entry);
}
if (LogThread == null || LogThread.ThreadState == ThreadState.Stopped)
{ // either the thread is completed, or this is the first time we're logging to this logger.
LogTask = new new Thread(new ThreadStart(() =>
{
while (true)
{
LogEntry logEntry;
lock (LogQueueSyncRoot)
{
if (LogQueue.Count > 0)
{
logEntry = LogQueue.Dequeue();
}
else
{
break;
// is it possible for a message to be added,
// right after the break and I leanve the lock {} but
// before I exit the loop and task gets 'completed' ??
}
}
Log(logEntry);
}
}));
LogThread.Start();
}
}
// Actual logger implimentations will impliment this method.
protected abstract void Log(LogEntry entry);
}
Note that AddLogEntry can be called from multiple threads at the same time.
My question is, is it possible for this implementation to lose log entries ?
I'm worried that, is it possible to add a log entry to the queue, right after my thread exists the loop with the break statement and exits the lock block, and which is in the else clause, and the thread is still in the 'Running' state.
I do realize that, because I'm using a queue, even if I miss an entry, the next request to log, will push the missed entry as well. But this is not acceptable, specially if this happens for the last log entry of the application.
Also, please let me know whether and how I can implement the same, but using the new C# 5.0 async and await keywords with a cleaner code. I don't mind requiring .NET 4.5.
Thanks in Advance.
While you could likely get this to work, in my experience, I'd recommend, if possible, use an existing logging framework :) For instance, there are various options for async logging/appenders with log4net, such as this async appender wrapper thingy.
Otherwise, IMHO since you're going to be blocking a threadpool thread during your logging operation anyway, I would instead just start a dedicated thread for your logging. You seem to be kind-of going for that approach already, just via Task so that you'd not hold a threadpool thread when nothing is logging. However, the simplification in implementation I think benefits just having the dedicated thread.
Once you have a dedicated logging thread, you then only need have an intermediate ConcurrentQueue. At that point, your log method just adds to the queue and your dedicated logging thread just does that while loop you already have. You can wrap with BlockingCollection if you need blocking/bounded behavior.
By having the dedicated thread as the only thing that writes, it eliminates any possibility of having multiple threads/tasks pulling off queue entries and trying to write log entries at the same time (painful race condition). Since the log method is now just adding to a collection, it doesn't need to be async and you don't need to deal with the TPL at all, making it simpler and easier to reason about (and hopefully in the category of 'obviously correct' or thereabouts :)
This 'dedicated logging thread' approach is what I believe the log4net appender I linked to does as well, FWIW, in case that helps serve as an example.
I see two race conditions off the top of my head:
You can spin up more than one Thread if multiple threads call AddLogEntry. This won't cause lost events but is inefficient.
Yes, an event can be queued while the Thread is exiting, and in that case it would be "lost".
Also, there's a serious performance issue here: unless you're logging constantly (thousands of times a second), you're going to be spinning up a new Thread for each log entry. That will get expensive quickly.
Like James, I agree that you should use an established logging library. Logging is not as trivial as it seems, and there are already many solutions.
That said, if you want a nice .NET 4.5-based approach, it's pretty easy:
public abstract class BaseLogger
{
private readonly ActionBlock<LogEntry> block;
protected BaseLogger(int maxDegreeOfParallelism = 1)
{
block = new ActionBlock<LogEntry>(
entry =>
{
Log(entry);
},
new ExecutionDataflowBlockOptions
{
MaxDegreeOfParallelism = maxDegreeOfParallelism,
});
}
public virtual void AddLogEntry(LogEntry entry)
{
block.Post(entry);
}
protected abstract void Log(LogEntry entry);
}
Regarding the loosing waiting messages on app crush because of unhandled exception, I've bound a handler to the event AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DomainUnload. Goes like this:
protected ManualResetEvent flushing = new ManualResetEvent(true);
protected AsyncLogger() // ctor of logger
{
AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DomainUnload += CurrentDomain_DomainUnload;
}
protected void CurrentDomain_DomainUnload(object sender, EventArgs e)
{
if (!IsEmpty)
{
flushing.WaitOne();
}
}
Maybe not too clean, but works.

How to optimize tests validating asynchronous code?

We are developing a WPF application using TDD. As we're already working on this solution for almost two years, we've written a huge bunch of tests (almost 2000 Unittests right now).
There are some classes, that need to implement functionality multithreaded and asynchronously. For example a communication-component that can both send and receive messages and parse them. The dependencies are always mocked using RhinoMocks.
Our Test-Methods targeting these classes look very similar, as following:
[TestMethod]
public void Method_Description_ExpectedResult(){
// Arrange
var myStub = MockRepository.GenerateStub<IMyStub>();
var target = new MyAsynchronousClass(myStub);
// Act
var target.Send("Foo");
Thread.Sleep(200);
//Assert
myStub.AssertWasCalled(x => x.Bar("Foo"));
}
As you can see, this test runs at least for 200 ms due to the Thread.Sleep(). We optimized the test replacing the AssertWasCalled with a active polling method, s.th. like this:
public static bool True(Func<bool> condition, int times, int waitTime)
{
for (var i = 0; i < times; i++)
{
if (condition())
return true;
Thread.Sleep(waitTime);
}
return condition();
}
We can now use this WaitFor.True(...) Method by changing the AssertWasCalled to:
var fooTriggered = false;
myStub.Stub(x => x.Bar("Foo")).Do((Action)(() => fooTriggered = true)));
WaitFor.True(() => fooTriggered, 20, 20);
Assert.IsTrue(fooTriggered);
This construct will terminate earlier if the condition matches, but anyway - this takes too long for us. Running all of our 2000 Tests need about 5 Minutes (building and running them).
Is there any smart trick how we could optimize code like this?
You can use a monitor. I'm making this up so please excuse me if it isn't quite compiling, but it'll look something like:
[TestMethod]
public void Method_Description_ExpectedResult(){
// Arrange
var waitingRoom = new object();
var myStub = MockRepository.GenerateStub<IMyStub>();
myStub.Setup(x => x.Bar("Foo")).Callback(x =>
{
Monitor.Enter(waitingRoom);
Monitor.Pulse(waitingRoom);
Monitor.Exit(waitingRoom);
}
var target = new MyAsynchronousClass(myStub);
// Act
Monitor.Enter(waitingRoom);
target.Send("Foo");
Monitor.Wait(waitingRoom);
Monitor.Exit(waitingRoom);
//Assert
myStub.AssertWasCalled(x => x.Bar("Foo"));
}
Code written within the Monitor can't run until it's free. The test will cause the acting thread to wait until Monitor.Wait has been called. Then the callback can enter and pulse the Monitor. The test then "wakes up", and once the callback has exited the monitor, it gets control back and exits too, allowing you to Assert.
The only thing I haven't covered is that if Bar("Foo") doesn't get called it will hang, so you might want to have a timer pulse the thread too.
You can create a class which does the complex monitoring bits for you if you use it a lot. This is one I wrote to deal with asynchronous checks in UI automation; adapting it for what you're doing might help you.

Parallel.Invoke - Exception handling

My code runs 4 function to fill in information (Using Invoke) to a class such as:
class Person
{
int Age;
string name;
long ID;
bool isVegeterian
public static Person GetPerson(int LocalID)
{
Person person;
Parallel.Invoke(() => {GetAgeFromWebServiceX(person)},
() => {GetNameFromWebServiceY(person)},
() => {GetIDFromWebServiceZ(person)},
() =>
{
// connect to my database and get information if vegeterian (using LocalID)
....
if (!person.isVegetrian)
return null
....
});
}
}
My question is: I can not return null if he's not a vegeterian, but I want to able to stop all threads, stop processing and just return null. How can it be achieved?
To exit the Parallel.Invoke as early as possible you'd have to do three things:
Schedule the action that detects whether you want to exit early as the first action. It's then scheduled sooner (maybe as first, but that's not guaranteed) so you'll know sooner whether you want to exit.
Throw an exception when you detect the error and catch an AggregateException as Jon's answer indicates.
Use cancellation tokens. However, this only makes sense if you have an opportunity to check their IsCancellationRequested property.
Your code would then look as follows:
var cts = new CancellationTokenSource();
try
{
Parallel.Invoke(
new ParallelOptions { CancellationToken = cts.Token },
() =>
{
if (!person.IsVegetarian)
{
cts.Cancel();
throw new PersonIsNotVegetarianException();
}
},
() => { GetAgeFromWebServiceX(person, cts.Token) },
() => { GetNameFromWebServiceY(person, cts.Token) },
() => { GetIDFromWebServiceZ(person, cts.Token) }
);
}
catch (AggregateException e)
{
var cause = e.InnerExceptions[0];
// Check if cause is a PersonIsNotVegetarianException.
}
However, as I said, cancellation tokens only make sense if you can check them. So there should be an opportunity inside GetAgeFromWebServiceX to check the cancellation token and exit early, otherwise, passing tokens to these methods doesn't make sense.
Well, you can throw an exception from your action, catch AggregateException in GetPerson (i.e. put a try/catch block around Parallel.Invoke), check for it being the right kind of exception, and return null.
That fulfils everything except stopping all the threads. I think it's unlikely that you'll easily be able to stop already running tasks unless you start getting into cancellation tokens. You could stop further tasks from executing by keeping a boolean value to indicate whether any of the tasks so far has failed, and make each task check that before starting... it's somewhat ugly, but it will work.
I suspect that using "full" tasks instead of Parallel.Invoke would make all of this more elegant though.
Surely you need to load your Person from the database first anyway? As it is your code calls the Web services with a null.
If your logic really is sequential, do it sequentially and only do in parallel what makes sense.

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