这里有一个例子。运行它。然后将notifyAll()中的一个更改为notify()，看看会发生什么。

ProducerConsumerExample类

public class ProducerConsumerExample {

    private static boolean Even = true;
    private static boolean Odd = false;

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Dropbox dropbox = new Dropbox();
        (new Thread(new Consumer(Even, dropbox))).start();
        (new Thread(new Consumer(Odd, dropbox))).start();
        (new Thread(new Producer(dropbox))).start();
    }
}

Dropbox类

public class Dropbox {

    private int number;
    private boolean empty = true;
    private boolean evenNumber = false;

    public synchronized int take(final boolean even) {
        while (empty || evenNumber != even) {
            try {
                System.out.format("%s is waiting ... %n", even ? "Even" : "Odd");
                wait();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
        }
        System.out.format("%s took %d.%n", even ? "Even" : "Odd", number);
        empty = true;
        notifyAll();

        return number;
    }

    public synchronized void put(int number) {
        while (!empty) {
            try {
                System.out.println("Producer is waiting ...");
                wait();
            } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
        }
        this.number = number;
        evenNumber = number % 2 == 0;
        System.out.format("Producer put %d.%n", number);
        empty = false;
        notifyAll();
    }
}

消费阶层

import java.util.Random;

public class Consumer implements Runnable {

    private final Dropbox dropbox;
    private final boolean even;

    public Consumer(boolean even, Dropbox dropbox) {
        this.even = even;
        this.dropbox = dropbox;
    }

    public void run() {
        Random random = new Random();
        while (true) {
            dropbox.take(even);
            try {
                Thread.sleep(random.nextInt(100));
            } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
        }
    }
}

生产类

import java.util.Random;

public class Producer implements Runnable {

    private Dropbox dropbox;

    public Producer(Dropbox dropbox) {
        this.dropbox = dropbox;
    }

    public void run() {
        Random random = new Random();
        while (true) {
            int number = random.nextInt(10);
            try {
                Thread.sleep(random.nextInt(100));
                dropbox.put(number);
            } catch (InterruptedException e) { }
        }
    }
}

notify()将唤醒一个线程，而notifyAll()将唤醒所有线程。据我所知，没有中间立场。但是如果你不确定notify()会对你的线程做什么，使用notifyAll()。每次都很灵验。

线程有三种状态。

WAIT -线程没有使用任何CPU周期 BLOCKED -线程在试图获取监视器时被阻塞。它可能仍在使用CPU周期 RUNNING -线程正在运行。

现在，当调用notify()时，JVM选择一个线程并将其移动到BLOCKED状态，从而将其移动到RUNNING状态，因为没有竞争监视器对象。

当调用notifyAll()时，JVM选取所有线程并将它们移到BLOCKED状态。所有这些线程都将优先获得对象的锁。能够首先获取监视器的线程将能够首先进入RUNNING状态，依此类推。

这个答案是xagyg的优秀答案的图形重写和简化，包括eran的评论。

为什么要使用notifyAll，即使每个产品都是针对单个消费者的?

考虑生产者和消费者，简化如下。

制作人:

while (!empty) {
   wait() // on full
}
put()
notify()

消费者:

while (empty) {
   wait() // on empty
}
take()
notify()

假设2个生产者和2个消费者共享一个大小为1的缓冲区。下图描述了一个导致死锁的场景，如果所有线程都使用notifyAll，就可以避免死锁。

每个通知都被标记为被唤醒的线程。

有用的差异:

Use notify() if all your waiting threads are interchangeable (the order they wake up doesn't matter), or if you only ever have one waiting thread. A common example is a thread pool used to execute jobs from a queue--when a job is added, one of threads is notified to wake up, execute the next job and go back to sleep. Use notifyAll() for other cases where the waiting threads may have different purposes and should be able to run concurrently. An example is a maintenance operation on a shared resource, where multiple threads are waiting for the operation to complete before accessing the resource.

据我所知，以上所有答案都是正确的，所以我要告诉你一些其他的事情。对于生产代码，您确实应该使用java.util.concurrent中的类。在java的并发性方面，它们几乎没有不能为你做的事情。