Deadlock issue when using routine with channel - go

I have issue when using Go routine with channel. The code looks like this:
func main() {
c := make(chan int)
var wg sync.WaitGroup
wg.Add(1)
go func (c chan int, x int) {
c <- x
fmt.Println(x)
close(c)
defer wg.Done()
}(c,10)
wg.Wait()
}
When run the code I got this error:
fatal error: all goroutines are asleep - deadlock!
I cannot understand why this issue happens. Please help me to understand

You have 2 goroutines in your example: the main goroutine running the main() function, and the other you launch inside it. The main goroutine waits for the other to complete (to call wg.Done()), and the other goroutine blocks in the line where it attempts to send a value on channel c. Since nobody is receiving from that channel, and because that channel is unbuffered, this goroutine will never advance, so all your 2 goroutines will block forever.
Note that defer wg.Done() should be the first statement in the goroutine. If it's the last, defer won't make any difference.
If the channel would have a buffer of at least one, the send operation could proceed:
c := make(chan int, 1)
And output will be (try it on the Go Playground):
10
If we leave the channel unbuffered, there must be another goroutine that receives from the channel, e.g.:
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
defer wg.Done()
x := <-c
fmt.Println("Received:", x)
}()
Then output will be (try it on the Go Playground):
10
Received: 10

Related

Why channel with no buffer cause this bug? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
Buffered/Unbuffered channel
(3 answers)
fatal error: all goroutines are asleep - deadlock! when channel is not buffered
(1 answer)
Why is the order of channels receiving causing/resolving a deadlock in Golang?
(3 answers)
In the Go select construct, can I have send and receive to unbuffered channel in two case statements?
(2 answers)
Closed 7 days ago.
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
func main() {
ch := make(chan struct{})
wg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
defer wg.Done()
ch <- struct{}{}
}()
wg.Wait()
<-ch
fmt.Println("finished")
}
result
fnished will not be printed
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
func main() {
ch := make(chan struct{}, 1)
wg := &sync.WaitGroup{}
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
defer wg.Done()
ch <- struct{}{}
}()
wg.Wait()
<-ch
fmt.Println("finished")
}
result
finished can be printed immediately
The only difference between the two code is that the first code use no buffer channel, but the second code use channel with a buffer.
In the first code, ch <- struct{}{} can not be run. message can not be sent to the channel.
Why does that happen? Is there any official explanation or material?
In the first example wg.Done() can only be called after a value on the channel has been sent. But since the channel is unbuffered, the send can only happen if there's a ready receiver. The main goroutine would be the receiver, but it only receives after wg.Wait(). But wg.Wait() blocks until wg.Done() is called, so this will never happen, it's a deadlock.
This is in Spec: Send statements:
Communication blocks until the send can proceed. A send on an unbuffered channel can proceed if a receiver is ready.
When using non-buffered channels, sending or receiving commands from the channel are blocking.
This means with non-buffered channel, your go routine that sends the message is not done, hence it won't call wg.Done() which will keep the wg.Wait() method in blocking state.
If you run your code on the play server https://go.dev/play/p/oDpyL6-dARP, it will panic with an informative message: fatal error: all goroutines are asleep - deadlock!
When your using buffered channels, the go routine runs because the channel has a buffer, then wg.Done() is called, which release wg.Wait() afterwards.

Need run a goroutine for WaitGroup in a function

I've read a pipeline article from https://go.dev/blog/pipelines.
I've tried to remove the goroutine that covers wg.Wait() but it turns out that caused all goroutines are asleep - deadlock!
I really don't understand why.
func merge(cs ...<-chan int) <-chan int {
var wg sync.WaitGroup
out := make(chan int)
// Start an output goroutine for each input channel in cs. output
// copies values from c to out until c is closed, then calls wg.Done.
output := func(c <-chan int) {
for n := range c {
out <- n
}
wg.Done()
}
wg.Add(len(cs))
for _, c := range cs {
go output(c)
}
// Start a goroutine to close out once all the output goroutines are
// done. This must start after the wg.Add call.
go func() {
wg.Wait()
close(out)
}()
return out
}
out is a blocking channel. You need to return out and let something consume from out, or else the output goroutines will block as soon as they try to write anything. If merge waits on the waitgroup (i.e. waits for everything to finish) before the consumer even has a chance to start, that's an inevitable deadlock.

Can't read from a channel in goroutine [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
No output from goroutine
(3 answers)
Closed 3 years ago.
In this piece of code, a goroutine is created and tries to read from a buffered channel.
But the buffer is empty and should block the receiver, but it didn't. It will run but output nothin.
package main
import "fmt"
func fun(c chan int) {
fmt.Println(<-c)
}
func main() {
ch := make(chan int, 1)
//ch <- 1
go fun(ch)
}
First, the buffer is not empty, because you send a value on it:
ch <- 1
This send operation will not block because the channel is buffered.
Then you launch a goroutine, and the main() function ends. And with that, your program ends as well, it does not wait for other non-main goroutines to complete. For details, see No output from goroutine in Go.
Note that the same thing happens even if you comment out the send operation in main(): you launch a goroutine and then main() ends along with your app: it does not wait for the other goroutine.
To wait for other goroutines, often a sync.WaitGroup is used like this:
var wg = &sync.WaitGroup{}
func fun(c chan int) {
defer wg.Done()
fmt.Println(<-c)
}
func main() {
ch := make(chan int, 1)
ch <- 1
wg.Add(1)
go fun(ch)
wg.Wait()
}
Then output will be (try it on the Go Playground):
1
For details, see Prevent the main() function from terminating before goroutines finish in Golang

How to avoid deadlock in this golang program?

Here is my program which is producing deadlock, how do I avoid it and what is the recommended pattern to handle this kind of situation.
The problem is after timeout how do I detect that there is no reader on my channel ?
var wg sync.WaitGroup
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int)
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
c <- 10
wg.Wait()
}
func readFromChannel(c chan int, ti <-chan time.Time) {
select {
case x := <-c:
fmt.Println("Read", x)
case <-ti:
fmt.Println("TIMED OUT")
}
wg.Done()
}
So, lets look at what's really going on in your source. You have two goroutines (there's more than two, but we're going to focus on the explicit ones), main and readFromChannel.
Lets look at what readFromChannel does:
if channel `c` is not empty before `ti` has expired, print its contents and return, after signalling its completion to wait group.
if `ti` has expired before `c` is not empty, print "TIMED OUT" and return, after signalling its completion to wait group.
now Main:
adds to waitgroup
make a channel `c`
start a goroutine `readFromChannel`
sleep for 5 seconds
send 10 to channel `c`
call wait for waitgroup
Now, lets go through the flow of execution for your code, concurrently (your code may/ may not execute in this order every time, keep that in mind)
1) wg.Add(1)
2) c := make(chan int)
3) go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
#timer ti starts#
4) time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
#MAIN Goroutine begins sleep
#timer ti expires#
5) case <-ti:
6) fmt.Println("TIMED OUT")
7) wg.Done()
# readFromChannel Goroutine returns #
#MAIN Goroutine exits sleep#
8) c<-10
9) ......#DEADLOCK#
Now you can guess why you got a deadlock. In go, non buffered channels will block until something happens on the other end of the channel, regardless of whether you're sending or receiving. So c <- 10 will block until something reads from the other end of c, but the goroutine you had for that has dropped out of the picture 2 seconds ago. Therefore, c blocks forever, and since main is the last goroutine left, you get a Deadlock.
How to prevent it? When using channels, ensure that there's always a receive at the other end of the channel for every send.
Using a buffered channel in this scenario can serve as a quick fix, but may fuel potential gotchas in larger repositories. For example, assuming you wrote more data to c afterward and ran go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second)) a second time. You might see:
Read D1
Read D2
or
TIMED OUT
Read D1
solely based on chance. That's probably not the behavior you'd want.
Here's how I'd resolve the deadlock:
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int)
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
c <- 10
wg.Wait()
}
func readFromChannel(c chan int, ti <-chan time.Time) {
// the forloop will run forever
loop: // **
for {
select {
case x := <-c:
fmt.Println("Read", x)
break loop // breaks out of the for loop and the select **
case <-ti:
fmt.Println("TIMED OUT")
}
}
wg.Done()
}
** see this answer for details
You have an unbuffered channel. According to the docs:
If the channel is unbuffered, the sender blocks until the receiver has
received the value. If the channel has a buffer, the sender blocks
only until the value has been copied to the buffer
By changing the channel to being buffered, we can avoid deadlock.
c := make(chan int, 10) // holds 10 ints
I also suggest reading https://golang.org/doc/effective_go.html#channels, it's got some good stuff in there related to channels.
Your problem is that you are using select statement but you are not using inside a goroutine.
go func() {
for {
select {
case x := <-c:
fmt.Println("Read", x)
case <-ti:
fmt.Println("TIMED OUT")
}
}
}()
Getting the values out of different concurrently executing goroutines can be accomplished with the select keyword, which closely resembles the switch control statement and is sometimes called the communications switch.
Using a send operation in a select statement with a default case guarantees that the send will be non-blocking! If there are no cases, the select blocks execution forever.
https://play.golang.org/p/Ai1ggveb4s
This is an older question, but i'm diving deep into learning channels myself and found this here.
I think you just need to close the channel after your done sending on it?
Code:
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int)
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
c <- 10
close(c) // <- CLOSE IT HERE
wg.Wait()
}
To avoid deadlock here is some general advice from Deadlocks: the dark side of concurrency
Channel deadlock, Don’t send and receive to the same channel in the same goroutine
Read lock, Don’t take a read lock twice in the same goroutine
Release the lock as soon as possible
Objects which contain locks that call each other methods are a deadlock waiting to happen
Care total lock ordering
Access only read variables outside the lock
You can add a buffer to the c chan, like this:
var wg sync.WaitGroup
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int, 1)
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
c <- 10 // never blocks, because of the buffer
wg.Wait()
}
func readFromChannel(c chan int, ti <-chan time.Time) {
select {
case x := <-c:
fmt.Println("Read", x)
case <-ti:
fmt.Println("TIMED OUT")
}
wg.Done()
}
a write operation(c <- 10) to an unbuffered channel will be blocked until it there is a read operation(case x := <-c:).
Your timeout(2s) is smaller than sleep duration(5s) and because of this channel c will never be read in the select block.
I would recommend you to read chapter 8 & 9 of this book
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int)
go func() {
c <- 10
}()
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
wg.Wait()
}//This will read without deadlock
func main() {
wg.Add(1)
c := make(chan int)
go readFromChannel(c, time.After(time.Duration(2)*time.Second))
time.Sleep(time.Duration(5) * time.Second)
go func() {
c <- 10
}()
wg.Wait()
}//Time out without deadlock

Race condition with a simple channel in Go?

I'm new to Go and am stumped on what appears to be a somewhat-rare race condition with a very small block of code running on Linux with Go version 1.2.
Basically, I create a channel for an int, start a go routine to read from the channel, and then write a single int to the channel.
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
channel := make(chan int)
go func() {
number := <- channel
fmt.Printf("GOT IT: %d\n", number)
}()
fmt.Println("[+] putting num on channel")
channel <- 42
fmt.Println("[-] putting num on channel")
}
The output about 90% of the time is as expected:
$ go run test.go
[+] putting num on channel
GOT IT: 42
[-] putting num on channel
However, about 10% of the time, the go routine simply does not read the number from the channel and prints nothing:
$ go run test.go
[+] putting num on channel
[-] putting num on channel
I'm puzzled because this code is very similar to the example at https://gobyexample.com/channels, (which I do not have this problem with) except that I'm reading from the channel in my go routine instead of writing to the channel.
Do I have a fundamental misunderstanding of how channels work or is there something else at play here?
You should wait until your goroutine executes, and then your, for example, you can do it with sync.WaitGroup:
package main
import (
"fmt"
"sync"
)
func main() {
var wg sync.WaitGroup
channel := make(chan int)
wg.Add(1)
go func() {
number := <-channel
fmt.Printf("GOT IT: %d\n", number)
wg.Done()
}()
fmt.Println("[+] putting num on channel")
channel <- 42
wg.Wait()
fmt.Println("[-] putting num on channel")
}
(goplay: http://play.golang.org/p/VycxTw_4vu)
Also you can do it with a "notification channel", that indicates that job is done:
package main
import "fmt"
func main() {
channel := make(chan int)
done := make(chan bool)
go func() {
number := <-channel
fmt.Printf("GOT IT: %d\n", number)
done <- true
}()
fmt.Println("[+] putting num on channel")
channel <- 42
<-done
fmt.Println("[-] putting num on channel")
}
(goplay: http://play.golang.org/p/fApWQgtr4D)
You seem to be expecting the receiving goroutine to run to completion before the second fmt.Println executes. This is not guaranteed to be the case. If the program terminates, goroutines are not guaranteed to reach the end of their functions.
When you see the output that doesn't display the "GOT IT" message, the channel delivered its message, but the main function completed before the goroutine did. The program terminated, and the goroutine never gets the chance to call fmt.Printf
In the example you cited, the main function ends with this:
go func() { messages <- "ping" }()
msg := <-messages
fmt.Println(msg)
Since the main function blocks until it receives a message, the goroutine always runs to completion in this example. In your code, your goroutine executes a step after it receives from the channel, and it's undefined whether the goroutine or the main function will execute the next line after the receive.
You have two goroutines, one in main() (which is implicitly a goroutine), and the anonymous one.
They communicate over a synchronous channel, so after the channel communication, it's guaranteed that they're synchronised.
At this point, the code left in the main() goroutine looks like this:
fmt.Println("[-] putting num on a channel")
and the code left in the anonymous goroutine looks like this:
fmt.Println("GOT IT: %d\n", number)
Now you're racing: the output from these Printlns may appear in either order, or even intermingled. When the Println() from main finishes, the next thing that will happen on that goroutine is that your program will be stopped. This may prevent some or all of the Println from the anonymous goroutine from appearing.

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