【Java并发编程】Java创建多线程的三种方法以及线程启动底层的实现原理

一、创建线程的三种方法

有三种使用线程的方法：

• 实现 Runnable 接口
• 实现 Callable 接口(有返回结果的)；
• 继承 Thread 类。

实现 Runnable 和 Callable 接口的类只能当做一个可以在线程中运行的任务，不是真正意义上的线程，因此最后还需要通过 Thread 来调用。可以理解为任务是通过线程驱动从而执行的。

1. 实现 Runnable 接口

需要实现接口中的 run() 方法。

public class MyRunnable implements Runnable {
    @Override
    public void run() {
        // ...
    }
}

使用 Runnable 实例再创建一个 Thread 实例，然后调用 Thread 实例的 start() 方法来启动线程。

public static void main(String[] args) {
    MyRunnable instance = new MyRunnable();
    Thread thread = new Thread(instance);
    thread.start();
}

2. 实现 Callable 接口

与 Runnable 相比，Callable 可以有返回值，返回值通过 FutureTask 进行封装。关于FutureTask，计划专门出一篇文章来讲解。

FutureTask实现了RunnableFuture接口

public class MyCallable implements Callable<Integer> {
    public Integer call() {
        return 123;
    }
}
public static void main(String[] args) throws ExecutionException, InterruptedException {
    MyCallable mc = new MyCallable();
    FutureTask<Integer> ft = new FutureTask<>(mc);
    Thread thread = new Thread(ft);
    thread.start();
    while(!ft.isDone()) { 
    	System.out.println(ft.get());    
    }
    
}

3. 继承 Thread 类

同样也是需要实现 run() 方法，因为 Thread 类也实现了 Runable 接口。

当调用 start() 方法启动一个线程时，虚拟机会将该线程放入就绪队列中等待被调度，当一个线程被调度时会执行该线程的 run() 方法。

public class MyThread extends Thread {
    public void run() {
        // ...
    }
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
    MyThread mt = new MyThread();
    mt.start();
}

Ps：实现接口 VS 继承 Thread

实现接口会更好一些，因为：

• Java 不支持多重继承，因此继承了 Thread 类就无法继承其它类，但是可以实现多个接口；
• 类可能只要求可执行就行，继承整个 Thread 类开销过大。

二、底层是怎么实现的？

Thread中的start方法

通过查看java.lang.thread的start方法得知，真正启动线程是调用了start0本地方法。start0方法其实就是JVM_StartThread方法

public synchronized void start() {
    /**
     * This method is not invoked for the main method thread or "system"
     * group threads created/set up by the VM. Any new functionality added
     * to this method in the future may have to also be added to the VM.
     *
     * A zero status value corresponds to state "NEW".
     */
    if (threadStatus != 0)
        throw new IllegalThreadStateException();

    /* Notify the group that this thread is about to be started
     * so that it can be added to the group's list of threads
     * and the group's unstarted count can be decremented. */
    group.add(this);

    boolean started = false;
    try {
        start0();
        started = true;
    } finally {
        try {
            if (!started) {
                group.threadStartFailed(this);
            }
        } catch (Throwable ignore) {
            /* do nothing. If start0 threw a Throwable then
              it will be passed up the call stack */
        }
    }
}
// native本地方法
private native void start0();

JNINativeMethod

下面是在openjdk8\jdk\src\share\native\java\lang\Thread.c中对于JNI的定义，可以看到native方法start0对应于JVM_StartThread

static JNINativeMethod methods[] = {
    {"start0",           "()V",        (void *)&JVM_StartThread},
    {"stop0",            "(" OBJ ")V", (void *)&JVM_StopThread},
    {"isAlive",          "()Z",        (void *)&JVM_IsThreadAlive},
    {"suspend0",         "()V",        (void *)&JVM_SuspendThread},
    {"resume0",          "()V",        (void *)&JVM_ResumeThread},
    {"setPriority0",     "(I)V",       (void *)&JVM_SetThreadPriority},
    {"yield",            "()V",        (void *)&JVM_Yield},
    {"sleep",            "(J)V",       (void *)&JVM_Sleep},
    {"currentThread",    "()" THD,     (void *)&JVM_CurrentThread},
    {"countStackFrames", "()I",        (void *)&JVM_CountStackFrames},
    {"interrupt0",       "()V",        (void *)&JVM_Interrupt},
    {"isInterrupted",    "(Z)Z",       (void *)&JVM_IsInterrupted},
    {"holdsLock",        "(" OBJ ")Z", (void *)&JVM_HoldsLock},
    {"getThreads",        "()[" THD,   (void *)&JVM_GetAllThreads},
    {"dumpThreads",      "([" THD ")[[" STE, (void *)&JVM_DumpThreads},
    {"setNativeName",    "(" STR ")V", (void *)&JVM_SetNativeThreadName},
};

JVM_StartThread

而在openjdk8\hotspot\src\share\vm\prims\jvm.cpp中又可以找到OpenJDK对于JVM_StartThread的实现，在末尾可以找到一个关键的方法Thread::start(native_thread)

JVM_ENTRY(void, JVM_StartThread(JNIEnv* env, jobject jthread))
  JVMWrapper("JVM_StartThread");
  JavaThread *native_thread = NULL;

  // We cannot hold the Threads_lock when we throw an exception,
  // due to rank ordering issues. Example:  we might need to grab the
  // Heap_lock while we construct the exception.
  bool throw_illegal_thread_state = false;

  // We must release the Threads_lock before we can post a jvmti event
  // in Thread::start.
  {
    // Ensure that the C++ Thread and OSThread structures aren't freed before
    // we operate.
    MutexLocker mu(Threads_lock);

    // Since JDK 5 the java.lang.Thread threadStatus is used to prevent
    // re-starting an already started thread, so we should usually find
    // that the JavaThread is null. However for a JNI attached thread
    // there is a small window between the Thread object being created
    // (with its JavaThread set) and the update to its threadStatus, so we
    // have to check for this
    if (java_lang_Thread::thread(JNIHandles::resolve_non_null(jthread)) != NULL) {
      throw_illegal_thread_state = true;
    } else {
      // We could also check the stillborn flag to see if this thread was already stopped, but
      // for historical reasons we let the thread detect that itself when it starts running

      jlong size =
             java_lang_Thread::stackSize(JNIHandles::resolve_non_null(jthread));
      // Allocate the C++ Thread structure and create the native thread.  The
      // stack size retrieved from java is signed, but the constructor takes
      // size_t (an unsigned type), so avoid passing negative values which would
      // result in really large stacks.
      size_t sz = size > 0 ? (size_t) size : 0;
      native_thread = new JavaThread(&thread_entry, sz);

      // At this point it may be possible that no osthread was created for the
      // JavaThread due to lack of memory. Check for this situation and throw
      // an exception if necessary. Eventually we may want to change this so
      // that we only grab the lock if the thread was created successfully -
      // then we can also do this check and throw the exception in the
      // JavaThread constructor.
      if (native_thread->osthread() != NULL) {
        // Note: the current thread is not being used within "prepare".
        native_thread->prepare(jthread);
      }
    }
  }

  if (throw_illegal_thread_state) {
    THROW(vmSymbols::java_lang_IllegalThreadStateException());
  }

  assert(native_thread != NULL, "Starting null thread?");

  if (native_thread->osthread() == NULL) {
    // No one should hold a reference to the 'native_thread'.
    delete native_thread;
    if (JvmtiExport::should_post_resource_exhausted()) {
      JvmtiExport::post_resource_exhausted(
        JVMTI_RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED_OOM_ERROR | JVMTI_RESOURCE_EXHAUSTED_THREADS,
        "unable to create new native thread");
    }
    THROW_MSG(vmSymbols::java_lang_OutOfMemoryError(),
              "unable to create new native thread");
  }

  Thread::start(native_thread);

JVM_END

Thread::start(native_thread)

在openjdk8\hotspot\src\share\vm\runtime\thread.cpp中找到了Thread::start(native_thread)的实现，可以发现他调用的是操作系统启动线程的方法。

void Thread::start(Thread* thread) {
  // Start is different from resume in that its safety is guaranteed by context or
  // being called from a Java method synchronized on the Thread object.
  if (thread->is_Java_thread()) {
    // Initialize the thread state to RUNNABLE before starting this thread.
    // Can not set it after the thread started because we do not know the
    // exact thread state at that time. It could be in MONITOR_WAIT or
    // in SLEEPING or some other state.
    java_lang_Thread::set_thread_status(JavaThread::cast(thread)->threadObj(),
                                        JavaThreadStatus::RUNNABLE);
  }
  // 调用了操作系统底层的启动线程。
  os::start_thread(thread);
}

总结来说：

1. 在Java中的new Thread().start()调用的是JNIstart0方法
2. 而start0对应jvm.cpp中的JMV_StartThread
3. JMV_StartThread又调用了thread.cpp中的Thread::start(Thread* thread)方法
4. 而Thread::start(Thread* thread)方法又调用了os::start_thead(thread)方法
5. 所以Java启动线程，其实是使用C++调用操作系统的方法去启动线程。