Producer-Consumer Pattern
Imagine you're building an application that processes user uploads. Users upload files, and your system needs to process them (resize images, scan for viruses, extract metadata).
If you process each file as it arrives, you create a tight coupling between receiving files and processing them. When upload traffic spikes, processing becomes a bottleneck. When processing is slow, uploads back up.
The Producer-Consumer Pattern solves this by introducing a buffer between components. Producers add work to the buffer. Consumers take work from it. Neither knows about the other. The buffer absorbs speed differences and decouples the components.
In this chapter, we'll explore:
- What is the Producer-Consumer Pattern?
- The problem it solves
- How it works
- Implementation
- Variations and how to shutdown gracefully