Preface

Based on https://github.com/sasha-s/go-deadlock.

Changes from that package:

• Uses build tags to eliminate all overhead when not enabled
• Tests pass race checker and has full code coverage
• Guards against github.com/petermattis/goid not supporting the current Go version
• Diagnostic output matches -race style and uses runtime.CallersFrames to get correct line numbers
• Adds deadlock.Enabled and deadlock.Debug constants
• Adds Try(R)Lock() when using go 1.18+
• Drops the dummy implementations for types other than Mutex and RWMutex

Also uses significantly less memory and CPU:

Using this package:
BenchmarkLockSingle-24           2716491               444.1 ns/op            32 B/op          1 allocs/op
BenchmarkLockParallel-24         2132055               483.0 ns/op            43 B/op          1 allocs/op

Using https://github.com/sasha-s/go-deadlock@v0.3.3:
BenchmarkLockSingle-24           1000000              1468 ns/op             593 B/op          3 allocs/op
BenchmarkLockParallel-24          808564              1313 ns/op             593 B/op          3 allocs/op

Installation

go get github.com/linkdata/deadlock

Usage

The package enables itself when either the deadlock or race build tag is set, and the nodeadlock build tag is not set. The easiest way is to simply use deadlock.(RW)Mutex and run or test your code with the race detector.

import "github.com/linkdata/deadlock"

var mu deadlock.Mutex
mu.Lock()
defer mu.Unlock()

var rw deadlock.RWMutex
rw.RLock()
defer rw.RUnlock()

go run -race .

Deadlocks

Taking the same lock twice in the same goroutine will deadlock:

A.RLock() // or A.Lock()
...
A.Lock() // or A.RLock()

Those cases will be reported immediately when they occur. Also, in case we wait for a lock for more than deadlock.Opts.DeadlockTimeout (30 seconds by default), we also report that as a potential deadlock. Setting the DeadlockTimeout to zero disables this detection.

Sample output

POTENTIAL DEADLOCK:
goroutine 624 have been trying to lock 0xc0009a20d8 for more than 20ms:
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockMutex).Lock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:26 +0x113
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestHardDeadlock.func2()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:154 +0x92

goroutine 622 previously locked it from:
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockMutex).Lock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:26 +0x164
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestHardDeadlock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:150 +0xe6

goroutine 622 current stack:
goroutine 622 [sleep]:
time.Sleep(0xf4240)
        /usr/local/go/src/runtime/time.go:195 +0x135
github.com/linkdata/deadlock.spinWait(0xc000988340, 0x0?, 0x1)
        /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:25 +0x3e
github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestHardDeadlock(0xc000988340)
        /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:157 +0x265
testing.tRunner(0xc000988340, 0x6187e8)
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1576 +0x217
created by testing.(*T).Run
        /usr/local/go/src/testing/testing.go:1629 +0x806

Inconsistent lock ordering

One of the most common sources of deadlocks is inconsistent lock ordering. If you have two mutexes A and B, and in one goroutine you have:

A.Lock() // defer A.Unlock() or similar.
...
B.Lock() // defer B.Unlock() or similar.

And in another goroutine the order of locks is reversed:

B.Lock() // defer B.Unlock() or similar.
...
A.Lock() // defer A.Unlock() or similar.

This does not guarantee a deadlock (maybe the goroutines above can never be running at the same time), but it is bad practice. Detection is enabled by default, but can be disabled by setting deadlock.Opts.MaxMapSize to zero.

Sample output

POTENTIAL DEADLOCK: Inconsistent locking:
in one goroutine: happened before
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockRWMutex).Lock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:55 +0xa8
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestLockOrder.func2()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:120 +0x34

happened after
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockMutex).Lock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:26 +0x11a
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestLockOrder.func2()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:121 +0xa9

in another goroutine: happened before
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockMutex).Lock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:26 +0xa5
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestLockOrder.func3()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:129 +0x34

happened after
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.(*DeadlockRWMutex).RLock()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock.go:74 +0x11a
  github.com/linkdata/deadlock.TestLockOrder.func3()
      /home/user/src/deadlock/deadlock_test.go:130 +0xa6

Debugging constants

It's often helpful to run extra runtime checks during development and testing, but you don't want to have that code around in a production environment. Since these are constants, if the constant is false, code that depends on it being true gets removed entirely.

We define two:

• deadlock.Debug is true if either race or debug are set.
• deadlock.Enabled is true if either race or deadlock are set and nodeadlock is not set.

if deadlock.Debug {
    // extra checks or logging go here
}

Configuring

Options are stored in the global variable deadlock.Opts. See Options.

• Opts.DeadlockTimeout: blocking on mutex for longer than DeadlockTimeout is considered a deadlock, ignored if zero
• Opts.OnPotentialDeadlock: callback for when a deadlock is detected, or panic if nil
• Opts.MaxMapSize: size of happens before // happens after table, disables inconsistent locking order detection if zero
• Opts.PrintAllCurrentGoroutines: if true, dump stacktraces of all goroutines when inconsistent locking is detected
• Opts.LogBuf: where to write deadlock info/stacktraces, default is os.Stderr