How wait and get lock on file

Question

I want wait till other program releases lock on particular file, then I want to proceed to open that unlocked file.

I came across many solutions, but none are useful, here is my code -

File file = new File("c:\\somelockedfile.txt");
    FileChannel channel = null;
    try{
        channel = new RandomAccessFile(file, "rw").getChannel();
    }catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    }
    try {
        // Get an exclusive lock on the whole file
        FileLock lock = channel.lock();
        try {
            doWithLockedFile(file);
        } finally {
            lock.release();
        }
    }catch(Exception e){
        e.printStackTrace();
    } finally {
        try{
            channel.close();
        }catch(Exception e){
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }

I know when I will be running this code, file will be locked by some other Windows process, so I want to wait till other process releases lock and then I will proceed with unlocked file. If I try to open locked file I will get FileNotFoundException like "(The process cannot access the file because it is being used by another process)".

In above code I can't wait for getting lock because same exception will be thrown in line "channel = new RandomAccessFile(file, "rw").getChannel();"

Please help me on this, basically I want to get notified that other process has released lock on file, and till that time, I want to wait().

Answer 1

I got it worked by some sleep and queuing file names received by watcher for waiting and getting locks.

Solution:

package dirwatch;

import java.nio.file.*;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.ENTRY_CREATE;
import static java.nio.file.StandardWatchEventKinds.OVERFLOW;
import static java.nio.file.LinkOption.*;
import java.nio.file.attribute.*;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.*;
import java.util.concurrent.ArrayBlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.BlockingQueue;
import java.util.concurrent.TimeUnit;

public class WatchDir {
    private final WatchService watcher;
    private final Map<WatchKey,Path> keys;
    private final boolean recursive;
    private boolean trace = false;

    private BlockingQueue<String> fileProcessingQueue;

    //******* processedFileQueue **** will be used by other threads to retrive unlocked files.. so I have 
    // kept as public final
    public final BlockingQueue<String> processedFileQueue;
    private volatile boolean closeProcessingThread;
    private volatile boolean closeWatcherThread;


    private void processFiles(){
        System.out.println("DirWatchProcessingThread Started");
        String fileName;
        outerLoop: while(!closeProcessingThread || !fileProcessingQueue.isEmpty()){
            try{
                fileName = fileProcessingQueue.poll(1000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
            }catch(InterruptedException ie){
                fileName = null;
            }

            if(fileName == null || fileName.equals("")){
                continue outerLoop;
            }

            long startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
            innerLoop: while(true){
                FileInputStream fis = null;
                File file = new File(fileName);
                try{
                    fis = new FileInputStream(fileName);
                    break innerLoop;
                }catch(FileNotFoundException fnfe){
                    if(!file.exists() || file.isDirectory()){
                        System.out.println("File: '"+fileName+"has been deleted in file system or it is not file. Not processing this file.");
                        continue outerLoop;
                    }
                    try{
                        Thread.sleep(WatchDirParameters.millisToPuaseForFileLock);
                    }catch(InterruptedException ie){
                    }
                    if((System.currentTimeMillis() - startTime) > WatchDirParameters.millisToSwapFileForUnlocking){
                        if(fileProcessingQueue.offer(fileName)){
                            continue outerLoop;
                        }else{
                            startTime = System.currentTimeMillis();
                            continue innerLoop;
                        }
                    }
                }finally{
                    if(fis != null){
                        try{
                            fis.close();
                        }catch(IOException ioe){
                            ioe.printStackTrace();
                        }
                    }
                }
            }

            System.out.println("Queuing File: "+fileName);
            processedLoop:while(true){
                try{
                    if(processedFileQueue.offer(fileName, 1000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)){
                        break processedLoop;
                    }
                }catch(InterruptedException ie){
                    //ie.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
        closeWatcherThread = true;
        closeProcessingThread = true;
        System.out.println("DirWatchProcessingThread Exited");
    }

    /**
     * Process all events for keys queued to the watcher
     */
    private void processEvents(){
        System.out.println("DirWatcherThread started.");
        while(!closeWatcherThread) {
            // wait for key to be signalled
            WatchKey key;
            try {
                key = watcher.take();
            } catch (InterruptedException x) {
                // if we are returning from these method, it means we no longer wants to watch directory
                // we must close thread which may be waiting for file names in queue
                continue;
            }catch(ClosedWatchServiceException cwse){
                break;
            }

            Path dir = keys.get(key);
            if (dir == null) {
                System.err.println("WatchKey not recognized!!");
                continue;
            }

            try{
                for (WatchEvent<?> event: key.pollEvents()) {
                    WatchEvent.Kind kind = event.kind();

                    if (kind == OVERFLOW) {
                        continue;
                    }

                    // Context for directory entry event is the file name of entry
                    WatchEvent<Path> ev = cast(event);
                    Path name = ev.context();
                    Path child = dir.resolve(name);
                    if(kind.equals(ENTRY_CREATE)){
                        // if directory is created, and watching recursively, then
                        // register it and its sub-directories
                        if (recursive) {
                            try {
                                if (Files.isDirectory(child, NOFOLLOW_LINKS)) {
                                    registerAll(child);
                                    continue;
                                }
                            } catch (IOException x) {
                                // ignore to keep sample readbale
                            }
                        }
                        while(true){
                            if(fileProcessingQueue.remainingCapacity() < 2){
                                // if only one last can be inserted then don't queue this we need 1 empty space in queue
                                // for swaping file names..
                                // sleep for some time so processing thread may have made some rooms to queue in fileQueue
                                // this logic will not create any problems as only one this thread is inserting in queue
                                try{
                                    Thread.sleep(200);
                                }catch(InterruptedException ie){
                                }
                                continue;
                            }
                            if(!fileProcessingQueue.offer(child.toString())){
                                // couldn't queue this element by whatever reason.. we will try to enqueue again by continuing loop
                                continue;
                            }else{
                                // file name has been queued in queue
                                break;
                            }
                        }
                    }
                }
                // reset key and remove from set if directory no longer accessible
                boolean valid = key.reset();
                if (!valid) {
                    keys.remove(key);

                    // all directories are inaccessible
                    if (keys.isEmpty()) {
                        break;
                    }
                }
            }catch(ClosedWatchServiceException cwse){
                break;
            }

        }
        closeProcessingThread = true;
        closeWatcherThread = true;
        System.out.println("DirWatcherThread exited.");
    }

    public void stopWatching(){
        try{
            watcher.close();
        }catch(IOException ioe){
        }
        closeProcessingThread = true;
        closeWatcherThread = true;
    }

    public static WatchDir watchDirectory(String dirName, boolean recursive) throws InvalidPathException, IOException, Exception{
        try{
            Path dir = Paths.get(dirName);
            final WatchDir watchDir = new WatchDir(dir, recursive);
            watchDir.closeProcessingThread = false;
            watchDir.closeWatcherThread = false;
            new Thread(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                    watchDir.processFiles();
                }
            }, "DirWatchProcessingThread").start();
            new Thread(new Runnable() {
                public void run() {
                    watchDir.processEvents();
                }
            }, "DirWatcherThread").start();
            return watchDir;
        }catch(InvalidPathException ipe){
            throw ipe;
        }catch(IOException ioe){
            throw ioe;
        }catch(Exception e){
            throw e;
        }
    }

    @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
    private static <T> WatchEvent<T> cast(WatchEvent<?> event) {
        return (WatchEvent<T>)event;
    }

    /**
     * Register the given directory with the WatchService
     */
    private void register(Path dir) throws IOException {
        //WatchKey key = dir.register(watcher, ENTRY_CREATE, ENTRY_DELETE, ENTRY_MODIFY);
        WatchKey key = dir.register(watcher, ENTRY_CREATE);
        if (trace) {
            Path prev = keys.get(key);
            if (prev == null) {
                System.out.format("register: %s\n", dir);
            } else {
                if (!dir.equals(prev)) {
                    System.out.format("update: %s -> %s\n", prev, dir);
                }
            }
        }
        keys.put(key, dir);
    }

    /**
     * Register the given directory, and all its sub-directories, with the
     * WatchService.
     */
    private void registerAll(final Path start) throws IOException {
        // register directory and sub-directories
        Files.walkFileTree(start, new SimpleFileVisitor<Path>() {
            @Override
            public FileVisitResult preVisitDirectory(Path dir, BasicFileAttributes attrs) throws IOException {
                register(dir);
                return FileVisitResult.CONTINUE;
            }
        });
    }

    /**
     * Creates a WatchService and registers the given directory
     */
    private WatchDir(Path dir, boolean recursive) throws IOException {
        fileProcessingQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<String>(WatchDirParameters.fileQueueSize, false);
        processedFileQueue = new ArrayBlockingQueue<String>(WatchDirParameters.fileQueueSize, false);
        this.watcher = FileSystems.getDefault().newWatchService();
        this.keys = new HashMap<WatchKey,Path>();
        this.recursive = recursive;
        //CreateTxtFile.createFile(dir, 1);
        if (recursive) {
            System.out.format("Scanning %s ...\n", dir);
            registerAll(dir);
            System.out.println("Done.");
        } else {
            register(dir);
        }

        // enable trace after initial registration
        this.trace = true;
    }
}

Config Class:

package dirwatch;

public class WatchDirParameters {
    public static final int millisToPuaseForFileLock = 200;
    public static final int fileQueueSize = 500;
    public static final int millisToSwapFileForUnlocking = 2000;
}

Answer 2

Maybe create a boolean, set it to true (locked) in the catch part, and to false if you get to the very last of the code, which means it was unlocked and everything worked. And finally put the whole thing in a do{}while(locked); good luck.