Synchronization of a client and a server in a prefetching resource allocation system

A method in a data processing system having a server that manages allocation of resources and a client that requests allocation of the resources, the method performed by the server comprising the steps of:

• receiving a request to allocate a resource to the client;
• allocating the resource to the client and allocating additional resources to the client;
• incrementing a server counter for each allocated resource;
• receiving a request to deallocate one of the allocated resources, wherein the request includes a value of a counter maintained by the client that is incremented each time that the client is made aware of the allocation of a resource on its behalf;
• determining whether to deallocate the resource by comparing a value of the server counter to the value of the client counter received in the deallocation request;
• and
• when it is determined to not deallocate the resource,
• ignoring the deallocation request to prevent the server and the client from having conflicting indications of the allocation of the resource.

A method in a data processing system having a server that manages allocation of resources and a client that requests allocation of the resources, the method comprising the steps of:

• allocating a resource to the client;
• receiving a request to deallocate the resource from the client;
• determining whether the resource was allocated for at least a second time to the client before the deallocation request was sent by the client such that the client was unaware of the at least a second time allocation before the deallocation request was sent by the client;
• and
• when the resource was allocated for at least a second time to the client before the deallocation request was sent by the client such that the client was unaware of the at least a second time allocation before the deallocation request was sent by the client,
• ignoring the deallocation request to prevent the client and the server from having conflicting indications of the allocation of the resource.

A data processing system having resources comprising:

• a memory comprising:
• a client program for requesting allocation of the resources and for requesting deallocation of the resources;
• a server program for managing allocation of the resources, for receiving allocation requests, for allocating the resources in response to receiving the allocation requests, for receiving deallocation requests, and for determining to ignore the deallocation requests such that a deallocation request requesting the deallocation of a resource is ignored when the resource was allocated for at least a second time to the client program and the client program was unaware of the at least a second time allocation before the deallocation request was made by the client program;
• and
• a processor for running the server program and the client program.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a data processing system to perform a method, the data processing system having a server that manages allocation of resources and a client that requests allocation of the resources, the method performed by the server comprising the steps of:

• receiving a request to allocate a resource to the client;
• allocating the resource to the client and allocating additional resources to the client;
• incrementing a server counter for each allocated resource;
• receiving a request to deallocate one of the allocated resources, wherein the request includes a value of a counter maintained by the client that is incremented each time that the client is made aware of the allocation of a resource on its behalf;
• determining whether to deallocate the resource by comparing a value of the server counter to the value of the client counter received in the deallocation request;
• and
• when it is determined to not deallocate the resource,
• ignoring the deallocation request to prevent the server and the client from having conflicting indications of the allocation of the resource.

A computer-readable medium containing instructions for controlling a data processing system to perform a method, the data processing system having a server that manages allocation of resources and a client that requests allocation of the resources, the method comprising the steps of:

• allocating a resource to the client;
• receiving a request to deallocate the resource from the client;
• determining whether the resource was allocated for at least a second time to the client before the deallocation request was sent by the client such that the client was unaware of the at least a second time allocation before the deallocation request was sent by the client;
• and
• when the resource was allocated for at least a second time to the client before the deallocation request was sent by the client such that the client was unaware of the at least a second time allocation before the deallocation request was sent by the client,
• ignoring the deallocation request to prevent the client and the server from having conflicting indications of the allocation of the resource.