Java 21 built-in HTTP client pins the carrier thread

Question

I'm using Java Corretto 21.0.0.35.1 build 21+35-LTS, and the built-in Java HTTP client to retrieve a response as an InputStream. I'm making parallel requests using virtual threads, and for the most part, it's working well. However, occasionally, my testing encounters a "Pinning" event, as seen in the stack trace below.

I believed that the JDK had been updated to fully support virtual threads, and in my understanding, the HTTP client shouldn't be pinning a carrier thread at all. However, it appears that this pinning event occurs sometimes when reading and (automatically) closing an InputStream.

Is this behavior expected, or could it still be a bug in the JDK?

The code:

HttpResponse<InputStream> response = httpClient.send(request, HttpResponse.BodyHandlers.ofInputStream());
try (InputStream responseBody = response.body()) {
  return parser.parse(responseBody); // LINE 52 in the trace below
}

The trace

* Pinning event captured:
  java.lang.VirtualThread.parkOnCarrierThread(java.lang.VirtualThread.java:687)
  java.lang.VirtualThread.park(java.lang.VirtualThread.java:603)
  java.lang.System$2.parkVirtualThread(java.lang.System$2.java:2639)
  jdk.internal.misc.VirtualThreads.park(jdk.internal.misc.VirtualThreads.java:54)
  java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport.park(java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport.java:219)
  java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquire(java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:754)
  java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquire(java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:990)
  java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock$Sync.lock(java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock$Sync.java:153)
  java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock.lock(java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock.java:322)
  sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.implCloseNonBlockingMode(sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.java:1091)
  sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.implCloseSelectableChannel(sun.nio.ch.SocketChannelImpl.java:1124)
  java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractSelectableChannel.implCloseChannel(java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractSelectableChannel.java:258)
  java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractInterruptibleChannel.close(java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractInterruptibleChannel.java:113)
  jdk.internal.net.http.PlainHttpConnection.close(jdk.internal.net.http.PlainHttpConnection.java:427)
  jdk.internal.net.http.PlainHttpConnection.close(jdk.internal.net.http.PlainHttpConnection.java:406)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response.lambda$readBody$1(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response.java:355)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e6c438.749276779.accept(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e6c438.749276779.java:-1)
  jdk.internal.net.http.ResponseContent$ChunkedBodyParser.onError(jdk.internal.net.http.ResponseContent$ChunkedBodyParser.java:185)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response$BodyReader.onReadError(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1Response$BodyReader.java:677)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.checkForErrors(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.java:302)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.flush(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.java:268)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e31228.555093431.run(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e31228.555093431.java:-1)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$LockingRestartableTask.run(jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$LockingRestartableTask.java:182)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$CompleteRestartableTask.run(jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$CompleteRestartableTask.java:149)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$SchedulableTask.run(jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler$SchedulableTask.java:207)
  jdk.internal.net.http.HttpClientImpl$DelegatingExecutor.execute(jdk.internal.net.http.HttpClientImpl$DelegatingExecutor.java:177)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler.runOrSchedule(jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler.java:282)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler.runOrSchedule(jdk.internal.net.http.common.SequentialScheduler.java:251)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.onReadError(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.java:516)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.lambda$handlePendingDelegate$3(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver.java:380)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e33ca0.84679411.run(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb5e33ca0.84679411.java:-1)
  jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$Http1AsyncDelegateSubscription.cancel(jdk.internal.net.http.Http1AsyncReceiver$Http1AsyncDelegateSubscription.java:163)
  jdk.internal.net.http.common.HttpBodySubscriberWrapper$SubscriptionWrapper.cancel(jdk.internal.net.http.common.HttpBodySubscriberWrapper$SubscriptionWrapper.java:92)
  jdk.internal.net.http.ResponseSubscribers$HttpResponseInputStream.close(jdk.internal.net.http.ResponseSubscribers$HttpResponseInputStream.java:653)

  com.acme.service.server.StatusClient.getResponse(com.acme.service.server.StatusClient.java:52)
  com.acme.service.server.StatusClient_ClientProxy.getResponse(com.acme.service.server.StatusClient_ClientProxy.java:-1)
  com.acme.client.Request.execute(com.acme.client.Request.java:96)
  com.acme.service.server.serviceStatusProvider.getStatusHistorys(com.acme.service.server.serviceStatusProvider.java:237)
  com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck.getStatusHistory(com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck.java:163)
  com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck.lambda$doChecks$0(com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck.java:132)
  com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb9f0d8d0.979953307.call(com.acme.service.api.RemoteStatusCheck$$Lambda+0x00007f4cb9f0d8d0.979953307.java:-1)
  java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.run(java.util.concurrent.FutureTask.java:317)
  java.lang.VirtualThread.runWith(java.lang.VirtualThread.java:341)
  java.lang.VirtualThread.run(java.lang.VirtualThread.java:311)
  java.lang.VirtualThread$VThreadContinuation$1.run(java.lang.VirtualThread$VThreadContinuation$1.java:192)
  jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.enter0(jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.java:320)
  jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.enter(jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.java:312)
  jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.enterSpecial(jdk.internal.vm.Continuation.java:-1)

Answer 1

The method java.nio.channels.spi.AbstractInterruptibleChannel.close() (lines 108 - 115 in Temurin-21+35 (build 21+35-LTS), but probably all OpenJDK derivatives) is implemented as:

public final void close() throws IOException {
    synchronized (closeLock) {
        if (closed)
            return;
        closed = true;
        implCloseChannel();
    }
}

Line 113 in your stacktrace corresponds to the implCloseChannel() call which also corresponds to the previous line in your stacktrace, and this is in the middle of that synchronized block. Virtual threads will be pinned if they are parked/blocked in synchronized blocks, so that is why it is pinned.

In other words, given the code as it is, pinning is the expected and correct behaviour, and thus not a bug.

Whether the use of synchronized here is an oversight in getting rid of synchronized blocks in the JDK, or if there is a specific reason this still uses synchronized, I don't know. Given it is a private lock object, I guess it should be possible to get rid of it (i.e. it is not part of the "API" of a channel) by replacing it with a ReentrantLock or similar, but maybe there are other implementation reasons to keep this for now.

I have asked about this on the nio-dev list in thread Should AbstractInterruptibleChannel.close() still use a synchronized block?

Alan Bateman responded there with:

We decided it wasn't worth doing because it's rare to set SO_LINGER. Temporary pinning due to contention on the readLock or writeLock when closing is okay.

In the mean-time, we are working to remove restriction on synchronized blocks. We hope to have something in the loom repo soon.