ThreadLocal内存泄漏基于源码的个人理解

前段时间在网上看到一篇关于ThreadLocal内存泄漏的文章，觉得很有趣，因此最近抽空看了下ThreadLocal的源码，在这里记录下自己对于ThreadLocal内存泄漏的个人理解。

ThreadLocal的定义和作用这里不写了，网上有很多，这里直奔主题，首先看下ThreadLocal几个比较核心的方法。

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) {
                @SuppressWarnings("unchecked")
                T result = (T)e.value;
                return result;
            }
        }
        return setInitialValue();
    }

首先是get方法，get的方法实际上是返回当前线程的某个ThreadLocal所对应的值，如果对于当前线程没有该值则调用initialValue方法。该方法首先会获取当前CPU正在执行的线程，然后通过getMap方法获取当前线程的ThreadLocalMap对象，getMap方法及threadLocals如下：

    /**
     * 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;
    }

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

ThreadLocalMap类类似于HashMap，底层实际是一个Entry数组，通过将ThreadLocal对象作为key并与ThreadLocalMap的size进行&运算最终获取value在这个Entry数组中的位置。基本原理就是这样这里不做详述。

回到get方法，当该线程的ThreadLocalMap已经被创建，则通过当前的ThreadLocal对象去该map中寻找对应的Entry即键值对，若能够在Entry数组中定位到则返回对应的value若找不到或map不存在则调用setInitialValue方法。setInitialValue方法源码如下：

    /**
     * Variant of set() to establish initialValue. Used instead
     * of set() in case user has overridden the set() method.
     *
     * @return the initial value
     */
    private T setInitialValue() {
        T value = initialValue();
        Thread t = Thread.currentThread();
        ThreadLocalMap map = getMap(t);
        if (map != null)
            map.set(this, value);
        else
            createMap(t, value);
        return value;
    }

该方法大致的意思是首先将value初始化成某个值，这个值可以通过重写的方法自定义，获取当前线程对应的ThreadLocalMap，如果存在该map则将初始化的value存入到对应的Entry数组的某个index下，若不存在则创建一个新的ThreadLocalMap方法并将value放入，最后返回初始值。createMap代码如下：

    /**
     * Create the map associated with a ThreadLocal. Overridden in
     * InheritableThreadLocal.
     *
     * @param t the current thread
     * @param firstValue value for the initial entry of the map
     */
    void createMap(Thread t, T firstValue) {
        t.threadLocals = new ThreadLocalMap(this, firstValue);
    }

SET方法

这里介绍下另一个核心方法，set方法，源码如下：

    /**
     * Sets the current thread's copy of this thread-local variable
     * to the specified value.  Most subclasses will have no need to
     * override this method, relying solely on the {@link #initialValue}
     * method to set the values of thread-locals.
     *
     * @param value the value to be stored in the current thread's copy of
     *        this thread-local.
     */
    public void set(T value) {
        Thread t = Thread.currentThread();
        ThreadLocalMap map = getMap(t);
        if (map != null)
            map.set(this, value);
        else
            createMap(t, value);
    }

set方法也是比价简单，获取当前线程，并找到对应的ThreadLocalMap,若map不存在则创建新的ThreadLocalMap为这个线程并将value存入对应的index到Entry数组中；若存在map则直接存入。

REMOVE方法

remove方法实际上是将该ThreadLocal对象在当前线程对应的ThreadLocalMap中的entry的引用置为null以达到删除该entry的目的。

    /**
     * Removes the current thread's value for this thread-local
     * variable.  If this thread-local variable is subsequently
     * {@linkplain #get read} by the current thread, its value will be
     * reinitialized by invoking its {@link #initialValue} method,
     * unless its value is {@linkplain #set set} by the current thread
     * in the interim.  This may result in multiple invocations of the
     * {@code initialValue} method in the current thread.
     *
     * @since 1.5
     */
     public void remove() {
         ThreadLocalMap m = getMap(Thread.currentThread());
         if (m != null)
             m.remove(this);
     }

        /**
         * Remove the entry for key.
         */
        private void remove(ThreadLocal<?> key) {
            Entry[] tab = table;
            int len = tab.length;
            int i = key.threadLocalHashCode & (len-1);
            for (Entry e = tab[i];
                 e != null;
                 e = tab[i = nextIndex(i, len)]) {
                if (e.get() == key) {
                    e.clear();
                    expungeStaleEntry(i);
                    return;
                }
            }
        }

    /**
     * Clears this reference object.  Invoking this method will not cause this
     * object to be enqueued.
     *
     * <p> This method is invoked only by Java code; when the garbage collector
     * clears references it does so directly, without invoking this method.
     */
    public void clear() {
        this.referent = null;
    }

ThreadLocal内存泄漏

那么为什么会出现内存泄漏呢，首先看下ThreadLocalMap对于Entry的定义：

        /**
         * 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;
            }
        }

这里的注释是说这个entry的key也就是ThreadLocal使用了弱引用，对于用弱引用修饰的对象来说，如果没有强引用引用着这个对象，则在下一个GC回收周期到来时就会被GC所回收（具体看这里）。回到上面这段注释的说明，对于entry.get()方法等于null的情况，这说明这个key已经不再存在任何引用，因此这个entry可以从目标数值中移除。

这里我们可以考虑以下场景，当我们使用set方法将某value存入entry数组中，之后将该value对应的key也就是threadLocal对象的强引用去掉，那么当下一个GC回收周期到来之时该threadLocal对象将会被回收，但是对于这个threadLocal对象在entry数组中对应的value来说，它是不会被回收的，只有当我们调用remove方法或者该线程被关闭的时候才会被回收。本来这也是没有问题的，对于一个线程来说，执行完自己的方法就会关闭线程，但是对于一些特定场景，比如该线程是由线程池所维护的，也就是说线程不会被销毁而是继续由线程池所持有，那么因为value不会被回收，那么最终将造成内存泄漏。