How can you ensure in java that a block of code can not be interrupted by any other thread

Question

exampl:

new Thread(new Runnable() {
  public void run() {
    while(condition) {

      *code that must not be interrupted*

      *some more code*
    }
  }         


        

Answer 1

Assuming you're only concerned with application-level thread contention, and assuming you are willing to fuss with locks as suggested by others (which, IMHO, is a really bad idea), then you should use a ReadWriteLock and not simple object synchronization:

import java.java.util.concurrent.locks.*;

// create a fair read/write lock
final ReadWriteLock rwLock = new ReentrantReadWriteLock(true);

// the main thread grabs the write lock to exclude other threads
final Lock writeLock = rwLock.writeLock();

// All other threads hold the read lock whenever they do 
// *anything* to make sure the writer is exclusive when 
// it is running. NOTE: the other threads must also 
// occasionally *drop* the lock so the writer has a chance 
// to run!
final Lock readLock = rwLock.readLock();

new Thread(new Runnable() {
  public void run() {
    while(condition) {

      writeLock.lock();
      try {
        *code that must not be interrupted*
      } finally {
        writeLock.unlock();
      }

      *some more code*
    }
  }
}).start();

new SomeOtherThread(readLock).start();
new YetAntherThread(readLock).start();