System.Threading.SpinLock is a low-level mutual exclusion lock that you can use for scenarios that have very short wait times. System.Threading.SpinLock is not re-entrant. After a thread enters the lock, it must exit the lock correctly before it can enter again. Typically, any attempt to re-enter the lock would cause deadlock, and deadlocks can be very difficult to debug. As an aid to development, System.Threading.SpinLock supports a thread-tracking mode that causes an exception to be thrown when a thread attempts to re-enter a lock that it already holds. This lets you more easily locate the point at which the lock was not exited correctly. You can turn on thread-tracking mode by using the System.Threading.SpinLock constructor that takes a Boolean input parameter, and passing in an argument of true. After you complete the development and testing phases, turn off thread-tracking mode for better performance.
Example
The following example demonstrates thread-tracking mode. The lines that correctly exit the lock are commented out to simulate a coding error that causes one of the following results:
An exception is thrown if the System.Threading.SpinLock was created by using an argument of
true(Truein Visual Basic).Deadlock if the System.Threading.SpinLock was created by using an argument of
false(Falsein Visual Basic).
sample · csharpsamples/snippets/csharp/VS_Snippets_Misc/cds_spinlock/cs/spinlockdemo.cs01
//<snippet01>
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Collections.Concurrent;
using System.Diagnostics;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
namespace SpinLockDemo
{
// C#
public class SpinLockTest
{
// Specify true to enable thread tracking. This will cause
// exception to be thrown when the first thread attempts to reenter the lock.
// Specify false to cause deadlock due to coding error below.
private static SpinLock _spinLock = new SpinLock(true);
static void Main()
{
Parallel.Invoke(
() => DoWork(),
() => DoWork(),
() => DoWork(),
() => DoWork()
);
Console.WriteLine("Press any key.");
Console.ReadKey();
}
public static void DoWork()
{
StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
for (int i = 0; i < 100; i++)
{
bool lockTaken = false;
try
{
_spinLock.Enter(ref lockTaken);
// do work here protected by the lock
Thread.SpinWait(50000);
sb.Append(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
sb.Append(" Entered-");
}
catch (LockRecursionException ex)
{
Console.WriteLine($"Thread {Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId} attempted to reenter the lock");
throw;
}
finally
{
// INTENTIONAL CODING ERROR TO DEMONSTRATE THREAD TRACKING!
// UNCOMMENT THE LINES FOR CORRECT SPINLOCK BEHAVIOR
// Commenting out these lines causes the same thread
// to attempt to reenter the lock. If the SpinLock was
// created with thread tracking enabled, the exception
// is thrown. Otherwise the spinlock deadlocks.
if (lockTaken)
{
// _spinLock.Exit(false);
// sb.Append("Exited ");
}
}
// Output for diagnostic display.
if(i % 4 != 0)
Console.Write(sb.ToString());
else
Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString());
sb.Clear();
}
}
}
}
//</snippet01>
//<snippet02>
class SpinLockDemo2
{
const int N = 100000;
static Queue<Data> _queue = new Queue<Data>();
static object _lock = new Object();
static SpinLock _spinlock = new SpinLock();
class Data
{
public string Name { get; set; }
public double Number { get; set; }
}
static void Main(string[] args)
{
// First use a standard lock for comparison purposes.
UseLock();
_queue.Clear();
UseSpinLock();
Console.WriteLine("Press a key");
Console.ReadKey();
}
private static void UpdateWithSpinLock(Data d, int i)
{
bool lockTaken = false;
try
{
_spinlock.Enter(ref lockTaken);
_queue.Enqueue( d );
}
finally
{
if (lockTaken) _spinlock.Exit(false);
}
}
private static void UseSpinLock()
{
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
Parallel.Invoke(
() => {
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
UpdateWithSpinLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
}
},
() => {
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
UpdateWithSpinLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
}
}
);
sw.Stop();
Console.WriteLine($"elapsed ms with spinlock: {sw.ElapsedMilliseconds}");
}
static void UpdateWithLock(Data d, int i)
{
lock (_lock)
{
_queue.Enqueue(d);
}
}
private static void UseLock()
{
Stopwatch sw = Stopwatch.StartNew();
Parallel.Invoke(
() => {
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
UpdateWithLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
}
},
() => {
for (int i = 0; i < N; i++)
{
UpdateWithLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
}
}
);
sw.Stop();
Console.WriteLine($"elapsed ms with lock: {sw.ElapsedMilliseconds}");
}
}
//</snippet02>
// In snippet02, the problem is actually more suited to data parallelism,
// but that didn't show much perf benefit for spinlock.
class ExtraForSnippet4
{
static void ParallelForWithLock()
{
//Parallel.For(0, _table.Length, (i) =>
//{
// UpdateWithLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
//}
// );
//sw.Stop();
// Console.WriteLine($"elapsed ms with lock: {sw.ElapsedMilliseconds}");
}
static void ParallelForwithSpinLock()
{
//Parallel.For(0, _table.Length, (i) =>
// {
// UpdateWithSpinLock(new Data() { Name = i.ToString(), Number = i }, i);
// }
// );
// Task.Factory.ContinueWhenAll(
}
}sample · vbsamples/snippets/visualbasic/VS_Snippets_Misc/cds_spinlock/vb/spinlock_threadtracking.vb01
Imports System.Collections.Generic
Imports System.Diagnostics
'<snippet01>
Imports System.Text
Imports System.Threading
Imports System.Threading.Tasks
Module Module1
Public Class SpinTest
' True means "enable thread tracking." This will cause an
' exception to be thrown when the first thread attempts to reenter the lock.
' Specify False to cause deadlock due to coding error below.
Private Shared _spinLock = New SpinLock(True)
Public Shared Sub Main()
Parallel.Invoke(
Sub() DoWork(),
Sub() DoWork(),
Sub() DoWork(),
Sub() DoWork()
)
Console.WriteLine("Press any key.")
Console.ReadKey()
End Sub
Public Shared Sub DoWork()
Dim sb = New StringBuilder()
For i As Integer = 1 To 9999
Dim lockTaken As Boolean = False
Try
_spinLock.Enter(lockTaken)
' do work here protected by the lock
Thread.SpinWait(50000)
sb.Append(Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId)
sb.Append(" Entered-")
Catch ex As LockRecursionException
Console.WriteLine("Thread {0} attempted to reenter the lock",
Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId)
Throw
Finally
' INTENTIONAL CODING ERROR TO DEMONSTRATE THREAD TRACKING!
' UNCOMMENT THE LINES FOR CORRECT SPINLOCK BEHAVIOR
' Commenting out these lines causes the same thread
' to attempt to reenter the lock. If the SpinLock was
' created with thread tracking enabled, the exception
' is thrown. Otherwise, if the SpinLock was created with a
' parameter of false, and these lines are left commented, the spinlock deadlocks.
If (lockTaken) Then
' _spinLock.Exit()
' sb.Append("Exited ")
End If
End Try
' Output for diagnostic display.
If (i Mod 4 <> 0) Then
Console.Write(sb.ToString())
Else
Console.WriteLine(sb.ToString())
End If
sb.Clear()
Next
End Sub
End Class
End Module
'</snippet01>