Name

lua-resty-lock - Simple shm-based nonblocking lock API

Table of Contents

• Name
• Status
• Synopsis
• Description
• Methods
  • new
  • lock
  • unlock
• For Multiple Lua Light Threads
• For Cache Locks
• Prerequisites
• Installation
• TODO
• Community
  • English Mailing List
  • Chinese Mailing List
• Bugs and Patches
• Author
• Copyright and License
• See Also

Status

This library is still under early development and is production ready.

Synopsis

# nginx.conf

http {
    # you do not need the following line if you are using the
    # OpenResty bundle:
    lua_package_path "/path/to/lua-resty-lock/lib/?.lua;;";

    lua_shared_dict my_locks 100k;

    server {
        ...

        location = /t {
            content_by_lua '
                local lock = require "resty.lock"
                for i = 1, 2 do
                    local lock = lock:new("my_locks")

                    local elapsed, err = lock:lock("my_key")
                    ngx.say("lock: ", elapsed, ", ", err)

                    local ok, err = lock:unlock()
                    if not ok then
                        ngx.say("failed to unlock: ", err)
                    end
                    ngx.say("unlock: ", ok)
                end
            ';
        }
    }
}

Description

This library implements a simple mutex lock in a similar way to ngx_proxy module's proxy_cache_lock directive.

Under the hood, this library uses ngx_lua module's shared memory dictionaries. The lock waiting is nonblocking because we use stepwise ngx.sleep to poll the lock periodically.

Back to TOC

Methods

To load this library,

1. you need to specify this library's path in ngx_lua's lua_package_path directive. For example, lua_package_path "/path/to/lua-resty-lock/lib/?.lua;;";.
2. you use require to load the library into a local Lua variable:

    local lock = require "resty.lock"

Back to TOC

new

syntax: obj = lock:new(dict_name)

syntax: obj = lock:new(dict_name, opts)

Creates a new lock object instance by specifying the shared dictionary name (created by lua_shared_dict) and an optional options table opts.

The options table accepts the following options:

• exptime Specifies expiration time (in seconds) for the lock entry in the shared memory dictionary. You can specify up to 0.001 seconds. Default to 30 (seconds). Even if the invoker does not call unlock or the object holding the lock is not GC'd, the lock will be released after this time. So deadlock won't happen even when the worker process holding the lock crashes.
• timeout Specifies the maximal waiting time (in seconds) for the lock method calls on the current object instance. You can specify up to 0.001 seconds. Default to 5 (seconds). This option value cannot be bigger than exptime. This timeout is to prevent a lock method call from waiting forever. You can specify 0 to make the lock method return immediately without waiting if it cannot acquire the lock right away.
• step Specifies the initial step (in seconds) of sleeping when waiting for the lock. Default to 0.001 (seconds). When the lock method is waiting on a busy lock, it sleeps by steps. The step size is increased by a ratio (specified by the ratio option) until reaching the step size limit (specified by the max_step option).
• ratio Specifies the step increasing ratio. Default to 2, that is, the step size doubles at each waiting iteration.
• max_step Specifies the maximal step size (i.e., sleep interval, in seconds) allowed. See also the step and ratio options). Default to 0.5 (seconds).

Back to TOC

lock

syntax: elapsed, err = obj:lock(key)

Tries to lock a key across all the Nginx worker processes in the current Nginx server instance. Different keys are different locks.

The length of the key string must not be larger than 65535 bytes.

Returns the waiting time (in seconds) if the lock is successfully acquired. Otherwise returns nil and a string describing the error.

The waiting time is not from the wallclock, but rather is from simply adding up all the waiting "steps". A nonzero elapsed return value indicates that someone else has just hold this lock. But a zero return value cannot gurantee that no one else has just acquired and released the lock.

When this method is waiting on fetching the lock, no operating system threads will be blocked and the current Lua "light thread" will be automatically yielded behind the scene.

It is strongly recommended to always call the unlock() method to actively release the lock as soon as possible.

If the unlock() method is never called after this method call, the lock will get released when

1. the current resty.lock object instance is collected automatically by the Lua GC.
2. the exptime for the lock entry is reached.

Common errors for this method call is

• "timeout" : The timeout threshold specified by the timeout option of the new method is exceeded.
• "locked" : The current resty.lock object instance is already holding a lock (not necessarily of the same key).

Other possible errors are from ngx_lua's shared dictionary API.

Back to TOC

unlock

syntax: ok, err = obj:unlock()

Releases the lock held by the current resty.lock object instance.

Returns 1 on success. Returns nil and a string describing the error otherwise.

If you call unlock when no lock is currently held, the error "unlocked" will be returned.

Back to TOC

For Multiple Lua Light Threads

It is always a bad idea to share a single resty.lock object instance across multiple ngx_lua "light threads" because the object itself is stateful and is vulnerable to race conditions. It is highly recommended to always allocate a separate resty.lock object instance for each "light thread" that needs one.

Back to TOC

For Cache Locks

One common use case for this library is avoid the so-called "dog-pile effect", that is, to limit concurrent backend queries for the same key when a cache miss happens. This usage is similar to the standard ngx_proxy module's proxy_cache_lock directive.

The basic workflow for a cache lock is as follows:

1. Check the cache for a hit with the key. If a cache miss happens, proceed to step 2.
2. Instantiate a resty.lock object, call the lock method on the key, and check the 1st return value, i.e., the lock waiting time. If it is nil, handle the error; otherwise proceed to step 3.
3. Check the cache again for a hit. If it is still a miss, proceed to step 4; otherwise release the lock by calling unlock and then return the cached value.
4. Query the backend (the data source) for the value, put the result into the cache, and then release the lock currently held by calling unlock.

Below is a kinda complete code example that demonstrates the idea.

    local resty_lock = require "resty.lock"
    local cache = ngx.shared.my_cache

    -- step 1:
    local val, err = cache:get(key)
    if val then
        ngx.say("result: ", val)
        return
    end

    if err then
        return fail("failed to get key from shm: ", err)
    end

    -- cache miss!
    -- step 2:
    local lock = resty_lock:new("my_locks")
    local elapsed, err = lock:lock(key)
    if not elapsed then
        return fail("failed to acquire the lock: ", err)
    end

    -- lock successfully acquired!

    -- step 3:
    -- someone might have already put the value into the cache
    -- so we check it here again:
    val, err = cache:get(key)
    if val then
        local ok, err = lock:unlock()
        if not ok then
            return fail("failed to unlock: ", err)
        end

        ngx.say("result: ", val)
        return
    end

    --- step 4:
    local val = fetch_redis(key)
    if not val then
        local ok, err = lock:unlock()
        if not ok then
            return fail("failed to unlock: ", err)
        end

        -- FIXME: we should handle the backend miss more carefully
        -- here, like inserting a stub value into the cache.

        ngx.say("no value found")
        return
    end

    -- update the shm cache with the newly fetched value
    local ok, err = cache:set(key, val, 1)
    if not ok then
        local ok, err = lock:unlock()
        if not ok then
            return fail("failed to unlock: ", err)
        end

        return fail("failed to update shm cache: ", err)
    end

    local ok, err = lock:unlock()
    if not ok then
        return fail("failed to unlock: ", err)
    end

    ngx.say("result: ", val)

Here we assume that we use the ngx_lua shared memory dictionary to cache the Redis query results and we have the following configurations in nginx.conf:

    # you may want to change the dictionary size for your cases.
    lua_shared_dict my_cache 10m;
    lua_shared_dict my_locks 1m;

The my_cache dictionary is for the data cache while the my_locks dictionary is for resty.lock itself.

Several important things to note in the example above:

1. You need to release the lock as soon as possible, even when some other unrelated errors happen.
2. You need to update the cache with the result got from the backend before releasing the lock so other threads already waiting on the lock can get cached value when they get the lock afterwards.
3. When the backend returns no value at all, we should handle the case carefully by inserting some stub value into the cache.

Back to TOC

Prerequisites

• LuaJIT 2.0+
• ngx_lua 0.8.10+

Back to TOC

Installation

It is recommended to use the latest OpenResty bundle directly where this library is bundled and enabled by default. At least OpenResty 1.4.2.9 is required. And you need to enable LuaJIT when building your OpenResty bundle by passing the --with-luajit option to its ./configure script. No extra Nginx configuration is required.

If you want to use this library with your own Nginx build (with ngx_lua), then you need to ensure you are using at least ngx_lua 0.8.10. Also, You need to configure the lua_package_path directive to add the path of your lua-resty-lock source tree to ngx_lua's Lua module search path, as in

    # nginx.conf
    http {
        lua_package_path "/path/to/lua-resty-lock/lib/?.lua;;";
        ...
    }

and then load the library in Lua:

    local lock = require "resty.lock"

Back to TOC

TODO

• We should simplify the current implementation when LuaJIT 2.1 gets support for __gc metamethod on normal Lua tables. Right now we are using an FFI cdata and a ref/unref memo table to work around this, which is rather ugly and a bit inefficient.

Back to TOC

Community

Back to TOC

English Mailing List

The openresty-en mailing list is for English speakers.

Back to TOC

Chinese Mailing List

The openresty mailing list is for Chinese speakers.

Back to TOC

Bugs and Patches

Please report bugs or submit patches by

1. creating a ticket on the GitHub Issue Tracker,
2. or posting to the OpenResty community.

Back to TOC

Author

Yichun "agentzh" Zhang (章亦春) agentzh@gmail.com, CloudFlare Inc.

Back to TOC

Copyright and License

This module is licensed under the BSD license.

Copyright (C) 2013-2016, by Yichun "agentzh" Zhang, CloudFlare Inc.

All rights reserved.

Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions are met:

• Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer.

• Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution.

THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDERS AND CONTRIBUTORS "AS IS" AND ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE.

Back to TOC

See Also

• the ngx_lua module: https://github.com/openresty/lua-nginx-module
• OpenResty: http://openresty.org

Back to TOC