Python offers a number of useful synchronization primitives in the threading and Queue modules. One that is missing, however, is a simple reader-writer lock (RWLock). A RWLock allows improved concurrency over a simple mutex, and is useful for objects that have high read-to-write ratios like database caches.

Surprisingly, I haven’t been able to find any implementation of these semantics, so I rolled my own in a module rwlock.py to implement a RWLock class, along with lock promotion/demotion. Hopefully it can be added to the standard library threading module. This code is hereby placed in the public domain.

"""Simple reader-writer locks in Python
Many readers can hold the lock XOR one and only one writer"""
import threading

version = """$Id: 04-1.html,v 1.3 2006/12/05 17:45:12 majid Exp $"""

class RWLock:
  """
A simple reader-writer lock Several readers can hold the lock
simultaneously, XOR one writer. Write locks have priority over reads to
prevent write starvation.
"""
  def __init__(self):
    self.rwlock = 0
    self.writers_waiting = 0
    self.monitor = threading.Lock()
    self.readers_ok = threading.Condition(self.monitor)
    self.writers_ok = threading.Condition(self.monitor)
  def acquire_read(self):
    """Acquire a read lock. Several threads can hold this typeof lock.
It is exclusive with write locks."""
    self.monitor.acquire()
    while self.rwlock < 0 or self.writers_waiting:
      self.readers_ok.wait()
    self.rwlock += 1
    self.monitor.release()
  def acquire_write(self):
    """Acquire a write lock. Only one thread can hold this lock, and
only when no read locks are also held."""
    self.monitor.acquire()
    while self.rwlock != 0:
      self.writers_waiting += 1
      self.writers_ok.wait()
      self.writers_waiting -= 1
    self.rwlock = -1
    self.monitor.release()
  def promote(self):
    """Promote an already-acquired read lock to a write lock
    WARNING: it is very easy to deadlock with this method"""
    self.monitor.acquire()
    self.rwlock -= 1
    while self.rwlock != 0:
      self.writers_waiting += 1
      self.writers_ok.wait()
      self.writers_waiting -= 1
    self.rwlock = -1
    self.monitor.release()
  def demote(self):
    """Demote an already-acquired write lock to a read lock"""
    self.monitor.acquire()
    self.rwlock = 1
    self.readers_ok.notifyAll()
    self.monitor.release()
  def release(self):
    """Release a lock, whether read or write."""
    self.monitor.acquire()
    if self.rwlock < 0:
      self.rwlock = 0
    else:
      self.rwlock -= 1
    wake_writers = self.writers_waiting and self.rwlock == 0
    wake_readers = self.writers_waiting == 0
    self.monitor.release()
    if wake_writers:
      self.writers_ok.acquire()
      self.writers_ok.notify()
      self.writers_ok.release()
    elif wake_readers:
      self.readers_ok.acquire()
      self.readers_ok.notifyAll()
      self.readers_ok.release()

if __name__ == '__main__':
  import time
  rwl = RWLock()
  class Reader(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
      print self, 'start'
      rwl.acquire_read()
      print self, 'acquired'
      time.sleep(5)
      print self, 'stop'
      rwl.release()
  class Writer(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
      print self, 'start'
      rwl.acquire_write()
      print self, 'acquired'
      time.sleep(10)
      print self, 'stop'
      rwl.release()
  class ReaderWriter(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
      print self, 'start'
      rwl.acquire_read()
      print self, 'acquired'
      time.sleep(5)
      rwl.promote()
      print self, 'promoted'
      time.sleep(5)
      print self, 'stop'
      rwl.release()
  class WriterReader(threading.Thread):
    def run(self):
      print self, 'start'
      rwl.acquire_write()
      print self, 'acquired'
      time.sleep(10)
      print self, 'demoted'
      rwl.demote()
      time.sleep(10)
      print self, 'stop'
      rwl.release()
  Reader().start()
  time.sleep(1)
  Reader().start()
  time.sleep(1)
  ReaderWriter().start()
  time.sleep(1)
  WriterReader().start()
  time.sleep(1)
  Reader().start()