StackExchange.Redis async call hangs

Question

Trying to figure out why this code hangs. I can remove any one of the 3 lines at the bottom of the test and it won't hang, but all 3 together makes it hang. Any help would be greatly appreciated!

[Fact]
public async Task CanAddValuesInParallel() {
    var muxer = ConnectionMultiplexer.Connect("localhost");
    var db = muxer.GetDatabase();

    await AddAsync(db, "test", "1");
    await db.KeyDeleteAsync("test");

    Task.Run(() => AddAsync(db, "test", "1")).Wait();
}

public async Task<bool> AddAsync(IDatabase db, string key, string value) {
    return await db.StringSetAsync(key, value, null, When.NotExists);
}

I think problem in Task.Run(() => AddAsync(db, "test", "1")).Wait();. Here you have deadlock. — Hamlet Hakobyan
This is the simplified version of my code. Trying to break it down to be as simplified as possible. I am trying to understand what is going on. — Eric J. Smith
Apparently I am running into this issue: github.com/StackExchange/StackExchange.Redis/issues/88 — Eric J. Smith
@EricJ.Smith: xUnit has a bad habit of providing a SynchronizationContext for all its test methods. This can cause a number of problems when mixing synchronous and asynchronous code. I suspect you're seeing some combination of problems I describe in two blog posts here and here. — Stephen Cleary

Marc Gravell Marc Gravell · Accepted Answer · 2014-12-02T22:22:05

It sounds to me like a sync-context deadlock from mixing Wait and await. Which is why you never do that - (switching into "Gilbert and Sullivan"): well, hardly ever!

If it helps, I suspect that removing the await in the Wait subtree will fix it - which should be trivial since that tree can be replaced with a trivial pass-thru:

public Task<bool> AddAsync(IDatabase db, string key, string value) {
    return db.StringSetAsync(key, value, null, When.NotExists);
}

The important point here is that SE.Redis bypasses sync-context internally (normal for library code), so it shouldn't have the deadlock.

But ultimately: mixing Wait and await is not a good idea. In addition to deadlocks, this is "sync over async" - an anti-pattern.

StackExchange.Redis async call hangs

1 Answers