October 22, 2024
Chicago 12, Melborne City, USA
python

Dealing with interlacing lock in Python3


I am trying to implement the following logic in Python3:

def f():

  lock1.acquire()

  task_protected_by_lock1() # Might acquire lock2 internally

  lock2.acquire()

  task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2()

  lock1.release()

  task_protected_by_lock2() # Might acquire lock1 internally

  lock2.release()

However, I found it impossible to correctly handle SIGINT because it will raise a KeyBoardInterrupt exception at random location. I need to guarantee that lock1 and lock2 are both released when control flow exits f() (i.e. either normal return or unhandled exception).

I am aware that SIGINT can be temporarily masked. However, correctly restoring the mask becomes another challenge because it might already been masked from outside. Also, the tasks performed between locks might also tweak signal masks. I believe there has to be a better solution.

I am wondering if there exist a way for me to utilize context-manager (with statement) to achieve it. I’ve considered the following, but none would work for my use case:

Approach 1 – single with statement

def f():
  with lock1, lock2:
    task_protected_by_lock1() # Bad: acquiring lock2 internally will cause deadlock
    task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2() # Good
    task_protected_by_lock2() # Bad: acquiring lock1 internally will cause deadlock

Approach 2 – nested with statement

def f():
  with lock1:
    task_protected_by_lock1() # Good
    with lock2:
      task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2() # Good
      task_protected_by_lock2() # Bad: acquiring lock1 internally will cause deadlock

Approach 3 – manual lock management

def f():

  flag1 = False
  flag2 = False

  try:
    lock1.acquire()
    # Bad: SIGINT might be raised here
    flag1 = True

    task_protected_by_lock1()

    lock2.acquire()
    # Bad: SIGINT might be raised here
    flag2 = True

    task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2()

    lock1.release()
    # Bad: SIGINT might be raised here
    flag1 = False

    task_protected_by_lock2()

    lock2.release()
    # Bad: SIGINT might be raised here
    flag2 = False

  except Exception as e:

    if flag1:
      lock1.release()

    if flag2:
      lock2.release()

    raise e

Approach 4 – similar to 3, but trickier

def f():
  try:
    lock1.acquire()

    task_protected_by_lock1()

    lock2.acquire()

    task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2()

    lock1.release()

    # Suppose SIGINT happened here, just after another thread acquired lock1

    task_protected_by_lock2()

    lock2.release()

  except Exception as e:

    if lock1.locked():
      lock1.release() # Bad: lock1 is NOT acquired by this thread!

    if lock2.locked():
      lock2.release()

    raise e

Approach 5 – breaks consistency & inefficient

def f():
  with lock1:
    task_protected_by_lock1()

  # Bad: other thread might acquire lock1 and modify protected resources.
  # This is NOT supposed to happen.

  with lock1, lock2:
    task_protected_by_lock1_and_lock2()

  # Bad: other thread might acquire lock2 and modify protected resources.
  # This is NOT supposed to happen.

  with lock2:
    task_protected_by_lock2()



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