context: use fewer goroutines in WithCancel/WithTimeout

If the parent context passed to WithCancel or WithTimeout
is a known context implementation (one created by this package),
we attach the child to the parent by editing data structures directly;
otherwise, for unknown parent implementations, we make a
goroutine that watches for the parent to finish and propagates
the cancellation.

A common problem with this scheme, before this CL, is that
users who write custom context implementations to manage
their value sets cause WithCancel/WithTimeout to start
goroutines that would have not been started before.

This CL changes the way we map a parent context back to the
underlying data structure. Instead of walking up through
known context implementations to reach the *cancelCtx,
we look up parent.Value(&cancelCtxKey) to return the
innermost *cancelCtx, which we use if it matches parent.Done().

This way, a custom context implementation wrapping a
*cancelCtx but not changing Done-ness (and not refusing
to return wrapped keys) will not require a goroutine anymore
in WithCancel/WithTimeout.

For #28728.

Change-Id: Idba2f435c81b19fe38d0dbf308458ca87c7381e9
Reviewed-on: https://go-review.googlesource.com/c/go/+/196521
Reviewed-by: Brad Fitzpatrick <bradfitz@golang.org>

src/context/context.go

@@ -51,6 +51,7 @@ import (
 	"errors"
 	"internal/reflectlite"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 )
 
@@ -239,11 +240,24 @@ func newCancelCtx(parent Context) cancelCtx {
 	return cancelCtx{Context: parent}
 }
 
+// goroutines counts the number of goroutines ever created; for testing.
+var goroutines int32
+
 // propagateCancel arranges for child to be canceled when parent is.
 func propagateCancel(parent Context, child canceler) {
-	if parent.Done() == nil {
+	done := parent.Done()
+	if done == nil {
 		return // parent is never canceled
 	}
+
+	select {
+	case <-done:
+		// parent is already canceled
+		child.cancel(false, parent.Err())
+		return
+	default:
+	}
+
 	if p, ok := parentCancelCtx(parent); ok {
 		p.mu.Lock()
 		if p.err != nil {
@@ -257,6 +271,7 @@ func propagateCancel(parent Context, child canceler) {
 		}
 		p.mu.Unlock()
 	} else {
+		atomic.AddInt32(&goroutines, +1)
 		go func() {
 			select {
 			case <-parent.Done():
@@ -267,22 +282,31 @@ func propagateCancel(parent Context, child canceler) {
 	}
 }
 
-// parentCancelCtx follows a chain of parent references until it finds a
-// *cancelCtx. This function understands how each of the concrete types in this
-// package represents its parent.
+// &cancelCtxKey is the key that a cancelCtx returns itself for.
+var cancelCtxKey int
+
+// parentCancelCtx returns the underlying *cancelCtx for parent.
+// It does this by looking up parent.Value(&cancelCtxKey) to find
+// the innermost enclosing *cancelCtx and then checking whether
+// parent.Done() matches that *cancelCtx. (If not, the *cancelCtx
+// has been wrapped in a custom implementation providing a
+// different done channel, in which case we should not bypass it.)
 func parentCancelCtx(parent Context) (*cancelCtx, bool) {
-	for {
-		switch c := parent.(type) {
-		case *cancelCtx:
-			return c, true
-		case *timerCtx:
-			return &c.cancelCtx, true
-		case *valueCtx:
-			parent = c.Context
-		default:
-			return nil, false
-		}
+	done := parent.Done()
+	if done == closedchan || done == nil {
+		return nil, false
 	}
+	p, ok := parent.Value(&cancelCtxKey).(*cancelCtx)
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	p.mu.Lock()
+	ok = p.done == done
+	p.mu.Unlock()
+	if !ok {
+		return nil, false
+	}
+	return p, true
 }
 
 // removeChild removes a context from its parent.
@@ -323,6 +347,13 @@ type cancelCtx struct {
 	err      error                 // set to non-nil by the first cancel call
 }
 
+func (c *cancelCtx) Value(key interface{}) interface{} {
+	if key == &cancelCtxKey {
+		return c
+	}
+	return c.Context.Value(key)
+}
+
 func (c *cancelCtx) Done() <-chan struct{} {
 	c.mu.Lock()
 	if c.done == nil {

src/context/context_test.go

@@ -10,6 +10,7 @@ import (
 	"runtime"
 	"strings"
 	"sync"
+	"sync/atomic"
 	"time"
 )
 
@@ -21,6 +22,7 @@ type testingT interface {
 	Failed() bool
 	Fatal(args ...interface{})
 	Fatalf(format string, args ...interface{})
+	Helper()
 	Log(args ...interface{})
 	Logf(format string, args ...interface{})
 	Name() string
@@ -401,7 +403,7 @@ func XTestAllocs(t testingT, testingShort func() bool, testingAllocsPerRun func(
 				c, _ := WithTimeout(bg, 15*time.Millisecond)
 				<-c.Done()
 			},
-			limit:      8,
+			limit:      12,
 			gccgoLimit: 15,
 		},
 		{
@@ -648,3 +650,81 @@ func XTestDeadlineExceededSupportsTimeout(t testingT) {
 		t.Fatal("wrong value for timeout")
 	}
 }
+
+type myCtx struct {
+	Context
+}
+
+type myDoneCtx struct {
+	Context
+}
+
+func (d *myDoneCtx) Done() <-chan struct{} {
+	c := make(chan struct{})
+	return c
+}
+
+func XTestCustomContextGoroutines(t testingT) {
+	g := atomic.LoadInt32(&goroutines)
+	checkNoGoroutine := func() {
+		t.Helper()
+		now := atomic.LoadInt32(&goroutines)
+		if now != g {
+			t.Fatalf("%d goroutines created", now-g)
+		}
+	}
+	checkCreatedGoroutine := func() {
+		t.Helper()
+		now := atomic.LoadInt32(&goroutines)
+		if now != g+1 {
+			t.Fatalf("%d goroutines created, want 1", now-g)
+		}
+		g = now
+	}
+
+	_, cancel0 := WithCancel(&myDoneCtx{Background()})
+	cancel0()
+	checkCreatedGoroutine()
+
+	_, cancel0 = WithTimeout(&myDoneCtx{Background()}, 1*time.Hour)
+	cancel0()
+	checkCreatedGoroutine()
+
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+	defer checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	ctx1, cancel1 := WithCancel(Background())
+	defer cancel1()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	ctx2 := &myCtx{ctx1}
+	ctx3, cancel3 := WithCancel(ctx2)
+	defer cancel3()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	_, cancel3b := WithCancel(&myDoneCtx{ctx2})
+	defer cancel3b()
+	checkCreatedGoroutine() // ctx1 is not providing Done, must not be used
+
+	ctx4, cancel4 := WithTimeout(ctx3, 1*time.Hour)
+	defer cancel4()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	ctx5, cancel5 := WithCancel(ctx4)
+	defer cancel5()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	cancel5()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	_, cancel6 := WithTimeout(ctx5, 1*time.Hour)
+	defer cancel6()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+
+	// Check applied to cancelled context.
+	cancel6()
+	cancel1()
+	_, cancel7 := WithCancel(ctx5)
+	defer cancel7()
+	checkNoGoroutine()
+}

src/context/x_test.go

@@ -27,3 +27,4 @@ func TestCancelRemoves(t *testing.T)                   { XTestCancelRemoves(t) }
 func TestWithCancelCanceledParent(t *testing.T)        { XTestWithCancelCanceledParent(t) }
 func TestWithValueChecksKey(t *testing.T)              { XTestWithValueChecksKey(t) }
 func TestDeadlineExceededSupportsTimeout(t *testing.T) { XTestDeadlineExceededSupportsTimeout(t) }
+func TestCustomContextGoroutines(t *testing.T)         { XTestCustomContextGoroutines(t) }

src/go/build/deps_test.go

@@ -252,7 +252,7 @@ var pkgDeps = map[string][]string{
 	"compress/gzip":                  {"L4", "compress/flate"},
 	"compress/lzw":                   {"L4"},
 	"compress/zlib":                  {"L4", "compress/flate"},
-	"context":                        {"errors", "internal/reflectlite", "sync", "time"},
+	"context":                        {"errors", "internal/reflectlite", "sync", "sync/atomic", "time"},
 	"database/sql":                   {"L4", "container/list", "context", "database/sql/driver", "database/sql/internal"},
 	"database/sql/driver":            {"L4", "context", "time", "database/sql/internal"},
 	"debug/dwarf":                    {"L4"},