C# – using ThreadStatic variables with async/await

async-awaitcmultithreadingsynchronization

With the new async/await keywords in C#, there are now impacts to the way (and when) you use ThreadStatic data, because the callback delegate is executed on a different thread to one the async operation started on. For instance, the following simple Console app:

[ThreadStatic]
private static string Secret;

static void Main(string[] args)
{
    Start().Wait();
    Console.ReadKey();
}

private static async Task Start()
{
    Secret = "moo moo";
    Console.WriteLine("Started on thread [{0}]", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
    Console.WriteLine("Secret is [{0}]", Secret);

    await Sleepy();

    Console.WriteLine("Finished on thread [{0}]", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
    Console.WriteLine("Secret is [{0}]", Secret);
}

private static async Task Sleepy()
{
    Console.WriteLine("Was on thread [{0}]", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
    await Task.Delay(1000);
    Console.WriteLine("Now on thread [{0}]", Thread.CurrentThread.ManagedThreadId);
}

will output something along the line of:

Started on thread [9]
Secret is [moo moo]
Was on thread [9]
Now on thread [11]
Finished on thread [11]
Secret is []

I've also experimented with using CallContext.SetData and CallContext.GetData and got the same behaviour.

After reading some related questions and threads:

it seems that frameworks like ASP.Net explicitly migrates the HttpContext across threads, but not the CallContext, so perhaps the same thing is happening here with the use of async and await keywords?

With the use of the async/await keywords in mind, what's the best way to store data associated with a particular thread of execution that can be (automatically!) restored on the callback thread?

Thanks,

Best Answer

You could use CallContext.LogicalSetData and CallContext.LogicalGetData, but I recommend you don't because they don't support any kind of "cloning" when you use simple parallelism (Task.WhenAny / Task.WhenAll).

I opened a UserVoice request for a more complete async-compatible "context", explained in more detail in an MSDN forum post. It does not seem possible to build one ourselves. Jon Skeet has a good blog entry on the subject.

So, I recommend you use argument, lambda closures, or the members of the local instance (this), as Marc described.

And yes, OperationContext.Current is not preserved across awaits.

Update: .NET 4.5 does support Logical[Get|Set]Data in async code. Details on my blog.

Related Solutions

C# – Should ‘using’ directives be inside or outside the namespace

There is actually a (subtle) difference between the two. Imagine you have the following code in File1.cs:

// File1.cs
using System;
namespace Outer.Inner
{
    class Foo
    {
        static void Bar()
        {
            double d = Math.PI;
        }
    }
}

Now imagine that someone adds another file (File2.cs) to the project that looks like this:

// File2.cs
namespace Outer
{
    class Math
    {
    }
}

The compiler searches Outer before looking at those using directives outside the namespace, so it finds Outer.Math instead of System.Math. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately?), Outer.Math has no PI member, so File1 is now broken.

This changes if you put the using inside your namespace declaration, as follows:

// File1b.cs
namespace Outer.Inner
{
    using System;
    class Foo
    {
        static void Bar()
        {
            double d = Math.PI;
        }
    }
}

Now the compiler searches System before searching Outer, finds System.Math, and all is well.

Some would argue that Math might be a bad name for a user-defined class, since there's already one in System; the point here is just that there is a difference, and it affects the maintainability of your code.

It's also interesting to note what happens if Foo is in namespace Outer, rather than Outer.Inner. In that case, adding Outer.Math in File2 breaks File1 regardless of where the using goes. This implies that the compiler searches the innermost enclosing namespace before it looks at any using directive.

C# – CallContext vs ThreadStatic

Very often a request will use the same thread throughout, but it certainly won't always be the case - ASP.NET exhibits thread agility. There's an old in-depth blog article about the matter from 2005, but as of .NET 4.5 things are rather better.

Best Answer

Related Solutions

C# – Should ‘using’ directives be inside or outside the namespace

C# – CallContext vs ThreadStatic

Related Topic