ReentrantLock

public class ReentrantLock

extends Object
implements Lock, Serializable

A reentrant mutual exclusion Lock with the same basic behavior and semantics as the implicit monitor lock accessed using synchronized methods and statements, but with extended capabilities.
A ReentrantLock is owned by the thread last successfully locking, but not yet unlocking it. A thread invoking lock will return, successfully acquiring the lock, when the lock is not owned by another thread. The method will return immediately if the current thread already owns the lock. This can be checked using methods isHeldByCurrentThread(), and getHoldCount().

The constructor for this class accepts an optional fairness parameter. When set true, under contention, locks favor granting access to the longest-waiting thread. Otherwise this lock does not guarantee any particular access order. Programs using fair locks accessed by many threads may display lower overall throughput (i.e., are slower; often much slower) than those using the default setting, but have smaller variances in times to obtain locks and guarantee lack of starvation. Note however, that fairness of locks does not guarantee fairness of thread scheduling. Thus, one of many threads using a fair lock may obtain it multiple times in succession while other active threads are not progressing and not currently holding the lock. Also note that the untimed tryLock method does not honor the fairness setting. It will succeed if the lock is available even if other threads are waiting.

It is recommended practice to always immediately follow a call to lock with a try block, most typically in a before/after construction such as:

 class X {
   private final ReentrantLock lock = new ReentrantLock();
   // ...

   public void m() {
     lock.lock();  // block until condition holds
     try {
       // ... method body
     } finally {
       lock.unlock()
     }
   }
 }

In addition to implementing the Lock interface, this class defines methods isLocked and getLockQueueLength, as well as some associated protected access methods that may be useful for instrumentation and monitoring.

Serialization of this class behaves in the same way as built-in locks: a deserialized lock is in the unlocked state, regardless of its state when serialized.

This lock supports a maximum of 2147483647 recursive locks by the same thread. Attempts to exceed this limit result in Error throws from locking methods.

ReentrantLock vs Synchronized

A ReentrantLock is unstructured, unlike synchronized constructs – i.e. you don’t need to use a block structure for locking and can even hold a lock across methods. An example:

private ReentrantLock lock;

public void foo() {
  ...
  lock.lock();
  ...
}

public void bar() {
  ...
  lock.unlock();
  ...
}

Such flow is impossible to represent via a single monitor in a synchronized construct.

Aside from that, ReentrantLock supports lock polling and interruptible lock waits that support time-out. ReentrantLock also has support for configurable fairness policy, allowing more flexible thread scheduling.

The constructor for this class accepts an optional fairness parameter. When set true, under contention, locks favor granting access to the longest-waiting thread. Otherwise this lock does not guarantee any particular access order. Programs using fair locks accessed by many threads may display lower overall throughput (i.e., are slower; often much slower) than those using the default setting, but have smaller variances in times to obtain locks and guarantee lack of starvation. Note however, that fairness of locks does not guarantee fairness of thread scheduling. Thus, one of many threads using a fair lock may obtain it multiple times in succession while other active threads are not progressing and not currently holding the lock. Also note that the untimed tryLock method does not honor the fairness setting. It will succeed if the lock is available even if other threads are waiting.
ReentrantLock may also be more scalable, performing much better under higher contention. You can read more about this here.

This claim has been contested, however; see the following comment:

In the reentrant lock test, a new lock is created each time, thus there is no exclusive locking and the resulting data is invalid. Also, the IBM link offers no source code for the underlying benchmark so its impossible to characterize whether the test was even conducted correctly.

When should you use ReentrantLocks?

According to that developerWorks article…

The answer is pretty simple – use it when you actually need something it provides that synchronized doesn’t, like timed lock waits, interruptible lock waits, non-block-structured locks, multiple condition variables, or lock polling. ReentrantLock also has scalability benefits, and you should use it if you actually have a situation that exhibits high contention, but remember that the vast majority of synchronized blocks hardly ever exhibit any contention, let alone high contention. I would advise developing with synchronization until synchronization has proven to be inadequate, rather than simply assuming “the performance will be better” if you use ReentrantLock. Remember, these are advanced tools for advanced users. (And truly advanced users tend to prefer the simplest tools they can find until they’re convinced the simple tools are inadequate.) As always, make it right first, and then worry about whether or not you have to make it faster.