[kepler-dev] Possible race condition

[xiaowen]

Hi Everyone,


I'm seeing a possible race condition in a PN workflow where tokens are
not generated in the desired order.  Knowing PN does not guarantee the
order of tokens, I've tried putting a synchronizer component in to force
the order. This component seems to work when it's part of a composite
actor, but not when it's specified in a separate MoML file.  I've
attached four files to reproduce the situation.


$ ls
racecondition-composite.xml  RaceCondition.java  racecondition.xml  Synchronizer.xml

$ javac -classpath $PTII:$PTII/ptolemy/ptsupport.jar:$PTII/ptolemy/ptolemy.jar RaceCondition.java

$ java -classpath $PTII:$PTII/ptolemy/ptsupport.jar:$PTII/ptolemy/ptolemy.jar:$PTII/ptolemy/domains/domains.jar:. RaceCondition racecondition.xml
<Wait up to maybe ten thousand iterations.>
<Workflow gives wrong answer.>

$ java -classpath $PTII/ptolemy/ptsupport.jar:$PTII/ptolemy/domains/domains.jar:. RaceCondition racecondition-composite.xml
<Wait forever>
<No errors until Java runs out of memory.>


The Java class runs the workflow specified by the first argument in an
infinite loop until the workflow outputs the wrong result.

racecondition.xml and racecondition-composite.xml are identical, except
for where the synchronizer component is implemented.  The goal of the
synchronizer component is to remove race conditions by ensuring that
actors do not receive an input token until they've sent the output token
corresponding to the previous input.  In racecondition.xml, the
synchronizer component is placed in a separate MoML file, whereas in
racecondition-composite.xml, the synchronizer component is copied and
pasted into a composite actor.

Because I have a tendency to create very large workflows with dozens and
dozens of actors, I find the ability to put portions into separate files
very useful. The time it takes to debug seems to grow exponentially with
the number of actors in the workflow.  If I can modularize it, then I
can easily test each portion separately inside junit or a similar
automated testing framework.

Will someone please explain to me why the workflow functions flawlessly
in racecondition-composite.xml, but seems to generate the wrong result
in racecondition.xml?  Have I created Synchronizer.xml wrong?


I'm using Ptolemy 4.0.1.

Thanks in advance!
Xiaowen


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