AsyncDuplicateLock

AsyncDuplicateLock.cs

/// <summary>
/// Throttles duplicate requests.
/// Based loosely on <see href="http://stackoverflow.com/a/21011273/427899"/>
/// </summary>
public sealed class AsyncDuplicateLock
{
    /// <summary>
    /// The collection of semaphore slims.
    /// </summary>
    private static readonly ConcurrentDictionary<object, SemaphoreSlim> SemaphoreSlims
                            = new ConcurrentDictionary<object, SemaphoreSlim>();

    /// <summary>
    /// Locks against the given key.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="key">
    /// The key that identifies the current object.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// The disposable <see cref="Task"/>.
    /// </returns>
    public IDisposable Lock(object key)
    {
        DisposableScope releaser = new DisposableScope(
        key,
        s =>
        {
            SemaphoreSlim locker;
            if (SemaphoreSlims.TryRemove(s, out locker))
            {
                locker.Release();
                locker.Dispose();
            }
        });

        SemaphoreSlim semaphore = SemaphoreSlims.GetOrAdd(key, new SemaphoreSlim(1, 1));
        semaphore.Wait();
        return releaser;
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// Asynchronously locks against the given key.
    /// </summary>
    /// <param name="key">
    /// The key that identifies the current object.
    /// </param>
    /// <returns>
    /// The disposable <see cref="Task"/>.
    /// </returns>
    public Task<IDisposable> LockAsync(object key)
    {
        DisposableScope releaser = new DisposableScope(
        key,
        s =>
        {
            SemaphoreSlim locker;
            if (SemaphoreSlims.TryRemove(s, out locker))
            {
                locker.Release();
                locker.Dispose();
            }
        });

        Task<IDisposable> releaserTask = Task.FromResult(releaser as IDisposable);
        SemaphoreSlim semaphore = SemaphoreSlims.GetOrAdd(key, new SemaphoreSlim(1, 1));

        Task waitTask = semaphore.WaitAsync();

        return waitTask.IsCompleted
                   ? releaserTask
                   : waitTask.ContinueWith(
                       (_, r) => (IDisposable)r,
                       releaser,
                       CancellationToken.None,
                       TaskContinuationOptions.ExecuteSynchronously,
                       TaskScheduler.Default);
    }

    /// <summary>
    /// The disposable scope.
    /// </summary>
    private sealed class DisposableScope : IDisposable
    {
        /// <summary>
        /// The key
        /// </summary>
        private readonly object key;

        /// <summary>
        /// The close scope action.
        /// </summary>
        private readonly Action<object> closeScopeAction;

        /// <summary>
        /// Initializes a new instance of the <see cref="DisposableScope"/> class.
        /// </summary>
        /// <param name="key">
        /// The key.
        /// </param>
        /// <param name="closeScopeAction">
        /// The close scope action.
        /// </param>
        public DisposableScope(object key, Action<object> closeScopeAction)
        {
            this.key = key;
            this.closeScopeAction = closeScopeAction;
        }

        /// <summary>
        /// Disposes the scope.
        /// </summary>
        public void Dispose()
        {
            this.closeScopeAction(this.key);
        }
    }
}

Issue.md

The issue is as follows.

For a given key,

• Thread 1 calls GetOrAdd and adds a new semaphore and acquires it via Wait
• Thread 2 calls GetOrAdd and gets the existing semaphore and blocks on Wait
• Thread 1 releases the semaphore, only after having called TryRemove, which removed the semaphore from the dictionary
• Thread 2 now acquires the semaphore.
• Thread 3 calls GetOrAdd for the same key as thread 1 and 2. Thread 2 is still holding the semaphore, but the semaphore is not in the dictionary, so thread 3 creates a new semaphore and both threads 2 and 3 access the same protected resource.

Using a Semaphoreslim to lock has precedents. See http://www.hanselman.com/blog/ComparingTwoTechniquesInNETAsynchronousCoordinationPrimitives.aspx

I was attempting to block only when a duplicate occurs but obviously this doesn't work.

Can two app domains running a single website exist at the same time pointing to a single location?

Sure they can - you just need to adapt the count of workers in IIS, which will spawn multiple processes for scaling 🍻