Is this synchronization required in service onCreate method?

Question

Below is a sample code i captured from android doc

Per service instance onCreate will be called only once. Ref: here and here

The synchronization and singleton doesn't make any sense to me in this circumstance. Very recently i asked another question on google document here

If this is again wrong, probably i need to limit myself to just take calling conventions from their documents and ignore their logic.

Sorry to running through Google doc with community in quick succession. I just want to correct myself on how much i should take from these documents.

public class SyncService extends Service {
    // Storage for an instance of the sync adapter
    private static SyncAdapter sSyncAdapter = null;
    // Object to use as a thread-safe lock
    private static final Object sSyncAdapterLock = new Object();
    /*
     * Instantiate the sync adapter object.
     */
    @Override
    public void onCreate() {
        /*
         * Create the sync adapter as a singleton.
         * Set the sync adapter as syncable
         * Disallow parallel syncs
         */
        synchronized (sSyncAdapterLock) {
            if (sSyncAdapter == null) {
                sSyncAdapter = new SyncAdapter(getApplicationContext(), true);
            }
        }
    }

I was wondering the same. I don't think it's needed as the service is a singleton. It's the SyncAdapter that can run multiple instances (for for multiple accounts, and in parallel if so specified). Perhaps this question would get a better response if asked on Stack Overflow. — Paul Lammertsma, Jul 06 '16 at 12:54

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Jul 17 '18 at 22:41

It is necessary. Note that sSyncAdapter is a STATIC variable.

This means there is one of them per application, not one per instance of the object.

Consider the situation when 2 (or more) SyncService objects are created at the same time. In that case, there would be a race and you could get two SyncAdapter objects created (with one a dangling reference not assigned to sSyncAdapter).

AND - even if external logic of your application prevents ever creating two SyncService at the same time, there is another reason for the lock. It creates a memory barrier, which 'publishes' the assignment to sSyncAdapter to other threads. I'm presuming there is other (threaded) code that accesses sSyncAdapter. The lock / unlock is needed to force the processor cache management to flush the data so its seen by other threads.

Is this synchronization required in service onCreate method?

1 Answers1