1 线程的意义

操作系统支持多个应用程序同时执行，每个应用至少对应一个进程，彼此之间的操作和数据不受干扰。当一个进程需要磁盘IO的时候，CPU就切换到另外的进程，提高了CPU利用率。

有了进程，为什么还要线程？因为进程的成本太高了。

启动新的进程必须分配独立的内存空间，建立数据表维护它的代码段、堆栈段和数据段，这是昂贵的多任务工作方式。如果两个进程之间需要通信，要采用管道通信、消息队列、共享内存等等方式。线程可以看作轻量化的进程，或者粒度更小的进程。线程之间使用相同的地址空间，切换线程的时间远远小于切换进程的时间。一个进程的开销大约是线程开销的30倍左右。

随着操作系统的发展，进程已经演变成了线程容器的角色。进程是资源分配的最小单位，线程是CPU调度的最小单位。每一个进程中至少有一个线程，同一进程的所有线程共享该进程的所有资源。

2 详解Java线程

我们以Java语言和JVM为例，了解一下线程的实现原理。

2.1 线程的底层实现

启动一个Java程序会创建一个JVM进程，JVM创建、管理线程本质都是调用操作系统接口。

public class TestThreadStart {
    public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
        Thread thread = new Thread(() -> {
            System.out.println("start thread now ");
        }, "TestThreadStart");
        thread.run();
        System.out.println("the state of thread is " + thread.getState().name());
        thread.start();
        System.out.println("the state of thread is " + thread.getState().name());
    }
}

以上代码演示了使用start方法启动线程，run方法只是执行同步方法，输出结果如下：

start thread now 
the state of thread is NEW
the state of thread is RUNNABLE
start thread now 

JVM源码文件 https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/master/src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/Thread.java 中，可以看到线程启动的start方法调用本地方法start0。

    public void start() {
        synchronized (this) {
            // zero status corresponds to state "NEW".
            if (holder.threadStatus != 0)
                throw new IllegalThreadStateException();
            start0();
        }
    }
    
    private native void start0();

源码文件 https://github.com/openjdk/jdk/blob/master/src/java.base/share/native/libjava/Thread.c 中，实现了start0方法映射到JVM本地方法。

static JNINativeMethod methods[] = {
    {"start0",           "()V",        (void *)&JVM_StartThread},
    {"stop0",            "(" OBJ ")V", (void *)&JVM_StopThread},
    {"isAlive0",         "()Z",        (void *)&JVM_IsThreadAlive},
    {"suspend0",         "()V",        (void *)&JVM_SuspendThread},
    {"resume0",          "()V",        (void *)&JVM_ResumeThread},
    {"setPriority0",     "(I)V",       (void *)&JVM_SetThreadPriority},
    {"yield0",           "()V",        (void *)&JVM_Yield},
    {"sleep0",           "(J)V",       (void *)&JVM_Sleep},
    {"currentCarrierThread", "()" THD, (void *)&JVM_CurrentCarrierThread},
    {"currentThread",    "()" THD,     (void *)&JVM_CurrentThread},
    {"setCurrentThread", "(" THD ")V", (void *)&JVM_SetCurrentThread},
    {"interrupt0",       "()V",        (void *)&JVM_Interrupt},
    {"holdsLock",        "(" OBJ ")Z", (void *)&JVM_HoldsLock},
    {"getThreads",       "()[" THD,    (void *)&JVM_GetAllThreads},
    {"dumpThreads",      "([" THD ")[[" STE, (void *)&JVM_DumpThreads},
    {"getStackTrace0",   "()" OBJ,     (void *)&JVM_GetStackTrace},
    {"setNativeName",    "(" STR ")V", (void *)&JVM_SetNativeThreadName},
    {"extentLocalCache",  "()[" OBJ,    (void *)&JVM_ExtentLocalCache},
    {"setExtentLocalCache", "([" OBJ ")V",(void *)&JVM_SetExtentLocalCache},
    {"getNextThreadIdOffset", "()J",     (v