java concurrency in practice读书笔记---ThreadLocal原理

ThreadLocal这个类很强大，用处十分广泛，可以解决多线程之间共享变量问题，那么ThreadLocal的原理是什么样呢？源代码最能说明问题！

public class ThreadLocal<T> {
    /**
     * ThreadLocals rely on per-thread linear-probe hash maps attached
     * to each thread (Thread.threadLocals and
     * inheritableThreadLocals).  The ThreadLocal objects act as keys,
     * searched via threadLocalHashCode.  This is a custom hash code
     * (useful only within ThreadLocalMaps) that eliminates collisions
     * in the common case where consecutively constructed ThreadLocals
     * are used by the same threads, while remaining well-behaved in
     * less common cases.
     */
    private final int threadLocalHashCode = nextHashCode();

    /**
     * The next hash code to be given out. Updated atomically. Starts at
     * zero.
     */
    private static AtomicInteger nextHashCode =
        new AtomicInteger();

    /**
     * The difference between successively generated hash codes - turns
     * implicit sequential thread-local IDs into near-optimally spread
     * multiplicative hash values for power-of-two-sized tables.
     */
    private static final int HASH_INCREMENT = 0x61c88647;

    /**
     * Returns the next hash code.
     */
    private static int nextHashCode() {
        return nextHashCode.getAndAdd(HASH_INCREMENT);
    }

    /**
     * Returns the current thread's "initial value" for this
     * thread-local variable.  This method will be invoked the first
     * time a thread accesses the variable with the {@link #get}
     * method, unless the thread previously invoked the {@link #set}
     * method, in which case the <tt>initialValue</tt> method will not
     * be invoked for the thread.  Normally, this method is invoked at
     * most once per thread, but it may be invoked again in case of
     * subsequent invocations of {@link #remove} followed by {@link #get}.
     *
     * <p>This implementation simply returns <tt>null</tt>; if the
     * programmer desires thread-local variables to have an initial
     * value other than <tt>null</tt>, <tt>ThreadLocal</tt> must be
     * subclassed, and this method overridden.  Typically, an
     * anonymous inner class will be used.
     *
     * @return the initial value for this thread-local
     */
    protected T initialValue() {
        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a thread local variable.
     */
    public ThreadLocal() {
    }

ThreadLocal只有三个变量， 从构造函数知道，在创建一个ThreadLocal实例时，只是调用nextHashCode方法将nextHashCode的值赋给实例的threadLocalHashCode，然后nextHashCode的值加HASH_INCREMENT。 因此ThreadLocal实例的变量只有threadLocalHashCode，而且是final的，用来区分不同的ThreadLocal实例。

再看关键的get方法：

/**
     * Returns the value in the current thread's copy of this
     * thread-local variable.  If the variable has no value for the
     * current thread, it is first initialized to the value returned
     * by an invocation of the {@link #initialValue} method.
     *
     * @return the current thread's value of this thread-local
     */
    public T get() {
        Thread t = Thread.currentThread();
        ThreadLocalMap map = getMap(t);
        if (map != null) {
            ThreadLocalMap.Entry e = map.getEntry(this);
            if (e != null)
                return (T)e.value;
        }
        return setInitialValue();
    }

其中调用getMap(Thread t)返回ThreadLocalMap，
ThreadLocalMap是内部静态类
，部分代码如下：

/**
     * Returns the value in the current thread's copy of this
     * thread-local variable.  If the variable has no value for the
     * current thread, it is first initialized to the value returned
     * by an invocation of the {@link #initialValue} method.
     *
     * @return the current thread's value of this thread-local
     */
    public T get() {
        Thread t = Thread.currentThread();
        ThreadLocalMap map = getMap(t);
        if (map != null) {
            ThreadLocalMap.Entry e = map.getEntry(this);
            if (e != null)
                return (T)e.value;
        }
        return setInitialValue();
    }

get方法的流程是这样的，首先获得当前线程引用，以当前线程为key，获得当前线程的ThreadLocalMap，也就是getMap方法，再查询ThreadLocalMap哈希表，查询当前线程的值。那么getMap方法是什么样的呢？

/**
     * Get the map associated with a ThreadLocal. Overridden in
     * InheritableThreadLocal.
     *
     * @param  t the current thread
     * @return the map
     */
    ThreadLocalMap getMap(Thread t) {
        return t.threadLocals;
    }

也就是说当前线程中维持着一个ThreadLocalMap， 这个Map里存放着这个线程的共享变量值，这就是真正的每个线程都拥有共享变量副本
那么这个ThreadLocalMap内部是什么样呢？

 static class ThreadLocalMap {

        /**
         * The entries in this hash map extend WeakReference, using
         * its main ref field as the key (which is always a
         * ThreadLocal object).  Note that null keys (i.e. entry.get()
         * == null) mean that the key is no longer referenced, so the
         * entry can be expunged from table.  Such entries are referred to
         * as "stale entries" in the code that follows.
         */
        static class Entry extends WeakReference<ThreadLocal> {
            /** The value associated with this ThreadLocal. */
            Object value;

            Entry(ThreadLocal k, Object v) {
                super(k);
                value = v;
            }
        }

        /**
         * The initial capacity -- MUST be a power of two.
         */
        private static final int INITIAL_CAPACITY = 16;

        /**
         * The table, resized as necessary.
         * table.length MUST always be a power of two.
         */
        private Entry[] table;

        /**
         * The number of entries in the table.
         */
        private int size = 0;

        /**
         * The next size value at which to resize.
         */
        private int threshold; // Default to 0

        /**
         * Set the resize threshold to maintain at worst a 2/3 load factor.
         */
        private void setThreshold(int len) {
            threshold = len * 2 / 3;
        }

        /**
         * Increment i modulo len.
         */
        private static int nextIndex(int i, int len) {
            return ((i + 1 < len) ? i + 1 : 0);
        }

        /**
         * Decrement i modulo len.
         */
        private static int prevIndex(int i, int len) {
            return ((i - 1 >= 0) ? i - 1 : len - 1);
        }

        /**
         * Construct a new map initially containing (firstKey, firstValue).
         * ThreadLocalMaps are constructed lazily, so we only create
         * one when we have at least one entry to put in it.
         */
        ThreadLocalMap(ThreadLocal firstKey, Object firstValue) {
            table = new Entry[INITIAL_CAPACITY];
            int i = firstKey.threadLocalHashCode & (INITIAL_CAPACITY - 1);
            table[i] = new Entry(firstKey, firstValue);
            size = 1;
            setThreshold(INITIAL_CAPACITY);
        }

        /**
         * Construct a new map including all Inheritable ThreadLocals
         * from given parent map. Called only by createInheritedMap.
         *
         * @param parentMap the map associated with parent thread.
         */
        private ThreadLocalMap(ThreadLocalMap parentMap) {
            Entry[] parentTable = parentMap.table;
            int len = parentTable.length;
            setThreshold(len);
            table = new Entry[len];

            for (int j = 0; j < len; j++) {
                Entry e = parentTable[j];
                if (e != null) {
                    ThreadLocal key = e.get();
                    if (key != null) {
                        Object value = key.childValue(e.value);
                        Entry c = new Entry(key, value);
                        int h = key.threadLocalHashCode & (len - 1);
                        while (table[h] != null)
                            h = nextIndex(h, len);
                        table[h] = c;
                        size++;
                    }
                }
            }
        }

ThreadLocalMap类是个内部静态类，其中的桶Entry类是继承WeakReference，也就是说，如果没有强引用引用key，那么在垃圾回收机制运行后，这些Entry将被回收。这说明ThreadLocal可以很好的被用于大量数据资源的共享。

那么，这里有个问题，共享变量如何拷贝给新建的线程呢？

看一下Thread类中关于ThreadLocalMap的代码：

 /* ThreadLocal values pertaining to this thread. This map is maintained
     * by the ThreadLocal class. */
    ThreadLocal.ThreadLocalMap threadLocals = null;

    /*
     * InheritableThreadLocal values pertaining to this thread. This map is
     * maintained by the InheritableThreadLocal class.
     */
    ThreadLocal.ThreadLocalMap  /* ThreadLocal values pertaining to this thread. This map is maintained
     * by the ThreadLocal class. */
    ThreadLocal.ThreadLocalMap threadLocals = null;

    /*
     * InheritableThreadLocal values pertaining to this thread. This map is
     * maintained by the InheritableThreadLocal class.
     */
    ThreadLocal.ThreadLocalMap inheritableThreadLocals = null;

Thread类中声明了两个ThreadLocalMap变量

 /**
     * Initializes a Thread.
     *
     * @param g the Thread group
     * @param target the object whose run() method gets called
     * @param name the name of the new Thread
     * @param stackSize the desired stack size for the new thread, or
     *        zero to indicate that this parameter is to be ignored.
     */
    private void init(ThreadGroup g, Runnable target, String name,
                      long stackSize) {
        if (name == null) {
            throw new NullPointerException("name cannot be null");
        }

        Thread parent = currentThread();
        SecurityManager security = System.getSecurityManager();
        if (g == null) {
            /* Determine if it's an applet or not */

            /* If there is a security manager, ask the security manager
               what to do. */
            if (security != null) {
                g = security.getThreadGroup();
            }

            /* If the security doesn't have a strong opinion of the matter
               use the parent thread group. */
            if (g == null) {
                g = parent.getThreadGroup();
            }
        }

        /* checkAccess regardless of whether or not threadgroup is
           explicitly passed in. */
        g.checkAccess();

        /*
         * Do we have the required permissions?
         */
        if (security != null) {
            if (isCCLOverridden(getClass())) {
                security.checkPermission(SUBCLASS_IMPLEMENTATION_PERMISSION);
            }
        }

        g.addUnstarted();

        this.group = g;
        this.daemon = parent.isDaemon();
        this.priority = parent.getPriority();
        this.name = name.toCharArray();
        if (security == null || isCCLOverridden(parent.getClass()))
            this.contextClassLoader = parent.getContextClassLoader();
        else
            this.contextClassLoader = parent.contextClassLoader;
        this.inheritedAccessControlContext = AccessController.getContext();
        this.target = target;
        setPriority(priority);
        if (parent.inheritableThreadLocals != null)
            this.inheritableThreadLocals =
                ThreadLocal.createInheritedMap(parent.inheritableThreadLocals);
        /* Stash the specified stack size in case the VM cares */
        this.stackSize = stackSize;

        /* Set thread ID */
        tid = nextThreadID();
    }

这是Thread类的init方法，在创建一个Thread对象时，会调用这个方法进行一些初始化，在初始化操作中，有两句关于ThreadLocalMap的操作，就是调用ThreadLocalMap的构造方法，将父线程的ThreadLocalMap值复制到当前线程的ThreadLocalMap中！

也就是说，在Thread类中，两个ThreadLocalMap变量，分别存着当前共享变量的值和父线程的变量值。