Sun Java System Messaging Server 6 2005Q4 MTA Developer's Reference

Thread Creation Loop in `mtaDequeueStart()`

After mtaDequeueStart() performs any necessary initialization steps, it then starts a loop whereby it communicates with the MTA Job Controller. Based upon information from the Job Controller, it then creates zero or more execution threads to process queued messages.

While any execution threads are running, the thread that invoked mtaDequeueStart()(the primal thread) executes a loop containing a brief pause (that is, a sleep request). Each time the primal thread awakens, it communicates with the Job Controller to see if it should create more execution threads. In addition, the Job Controller itself has logic to determine if more threads are needed in the currently running channel program, or if it should create additional processes to run the same channel program.

To demonstrate, the following code example shows pseudo-code of the mtaDequeueStart() loop.

threads_running = 0
threads_max = MTA_THREAD_MAX_THREADS
attemtps    = MTA_JBC_MAX_ATTEMPTS

LOOP:
    while (threads_running < threads_max)
    {

      Go to DONE if a shut down has been requested

      pending_messages = Ask the Job Controller how many
                         messsages there are to be processed

      // If there are no pending messages
      // then consider what to do next
      if (pending_messages = 0)
      {
          // Continue to wait?
          if (attempts <= 0)
              go to DONE

          // Decrement attempts and wait
          attempts = attempts - 1;
          go to SLEEP
      }
      // Reset the attempts counter
      attempts = MTA_JBC_MAX_ATTEMPTS

      threads_needed = Ask the Job Controller how many
                       processing threads are needed

      // Cannot run more then threads_max threads per process
      if (threads_needed \> threads_max)
          threads_needed = threads_max

      // Create additional threads if needed
      if (threads_needed \> threads_running)
      {
         Create (threads_needed - threads_running) more threads
         threads_running = threads_needed
      }
    }

SLEEP:
    Sleep for MTA_JBC_RETRY_INTERVAL seconds
     -- a shut down request will cancel the sleep
    go to LOOP

DONE:
    Wait up to MTA_THREAD_WAIT_TIMEOUT seconds
    for all processing threads to exit

    Return to the caller of mtaDequeueStart()

Thread Creation Loop in mtaDequeueStart()

Thread Creation Loop in `mtaDequeueStart()`