How does semaphore work?

Question

Can the semaphore be lower than 0? I mean, say I have a semaphore with N=3 and I call \"down\" 4 times, then N will remain 0 but one process will be blocked?

And same th

Answer 1

Hi Greg consider following example :

public static void main(String [] args) throws InterruptedException {

        Semaphore available = new Semaphore(1, true);

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.release();
        System.out.println("Released : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.release();
        System.out.println("Released : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.release();
        System.out.println("Released : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.release();
        System.out.println("Released : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());

        available.acquire();
        System.out.println("Acquire : " +available.availablePermits());
    }

If you see the output u will get following :

Acquire : 0
Released : 1
Released : 2
Released : 3
Released : 4
Acquire : 3
Acquire : 2
Acquire : 1
Acquire : 0

And wait is going on.

So basically permit will increase on every release and acquire will decrease it until 0. Once it reached 0 it will wait until release is called on same object :)