ChallengeThe problem of locking down tasks…
time to read 18 min | 3449 words

The following code has very subtle bug:

   1: public class AsyncQueue
   2: {
   3:     private readonly Queue<int> items = new Queue<int>();
   4:     private volatile LinkedList<TaskCompletionSource<object>> waiters = new LinkedList<TaskCompletionSource<object>>();
   5:  
   6:     public void Enqueue(int i)
   7:     {
   8:         lock (items)
   9:         {
  10:             items.Enqueue(i);
  11:             while (waiters.First != null)
  12:             {
  13:                 waiters.First.Value.TrySetResult(null);
  14:                 waiters.RemoveFirst();
  15:             }
  16:         }
  17:     }
  18:  
  19:     public async Task<IEnumerable<int>> DrainAsync()
  20:     {
  21:         while (true)
  22:         {
  23:             TaskCompletionSource<object> taskCompletionSource;
  24:             lock (items)
  25:             {
  26:                 if (items.Count > 0)
  27:                 {
  28:                     return YieldAllItems();
  29:                 }
  30:                 taskCompletionSource = new TaskCompletionSource<object>();
  31:                 waiters.AddLast(taskCompletionSource);
  32:             }
  33:             await taskCompletionSource.Task;
  34:         }
  35:     }
  36:  
  37:     private IEnumerable<int> YieldAllItems()
  38:     {
  39:         while (items.Count > 0)
  40:         {
  41:             yield return items.Dequeue();
  42:         }
  43:  
  44:     }
  45: }

I’ll even give you a hint, try to run the following client code:

   1: for (int i = 0; i < 1000 * 1000; i++)
   2: {
   3:     q.Enqueue(i);
   4:     if (i%100 == 0)
   5:     {
   6:         Task.Factory.StartNew(async () =>
   7:             {
   8:                 foreach (var result in await q.DrainAsync())
   9:                 {
  10:                     Console.WriteLine(result);
  11:                 }
  12:             });
  13:     }
  14:  
  15: }
Can you figure out what the problem is?
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