<AWT Dev> Endless loop in EventDispatchThread - proposed solution

[David Holmes]

On 25/08/2011 2:20 AM, Clemens Eisserer wrote:
> Hi again,
>
> Please find the latest version of the "full" patch at:
> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~ceisserer/7081670/webrev_full.02/
> Because the return value of pumpOneEventForFilters(int id) redundant as it
> always equals shutdown, I now just set shutdown and return nothing.

You changed from Lock to ReentrantLock so that you could use 
isHeldByCurrentThread(), but that locks in (pardon the pun) the kind of Lock 
that AppContext must use.

  504             pushPopLock.lock();
  505             try {
  506                 AWTEvent event = getNextEventPrivate();
  507                 if (event != null) {
  508                     return event;
  509                 }
  510 
AWTAutoShutdown.getInstance().notifyThreadFree(dispatchThread);
  511                 pushPopCond.await();
  512             } finally {
  513                 if(pushPopLock.isHeldByCurrentThread()) {
  514                    pushPopLock.unlock();
  515                 }
  516             }

You should add a comment explaining why the check for isHeldByCurrentThread 
is needed - and that if things are done right at a higher-level we should 
never need the stop() to break out of await().

Ditto for line 570

Overall I'm still concerned that there is an issue in the overall design 
that permits events to be queued even after a "shutdown" has been logically 
initiated. With this patch those events won't get processed and not knowing 
what they are I can't say whether this will be a problem or not. It is a 
concern that the current code in detachDispatchThread says:

1045        /*
1046         * Don't detach the thread if any events are pending. Not
1047         * sure if it's a possible scenario, though.
1048         *
1049         * Fix for 4648733. Check both the associated java event
1050         * queue and the PostEventQueue.
1051         */

as it seems to indicate that the exact conditions for detachment are 
unclear. Based on reading 4648733 I'm assuming that we have to keep the 
event queue receiving events so that the  shutdown event can be posted (as 
part of AWT auto-shutdown), and that then allows other events in. The 
question remains as to whether those events should be processed even when 
shutdown has been initiated.

David
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> Thanks, Clemens