What is the check-then-act race condition (TOCTOU) and how do you fix it?

The Time Of Check, Time Of Use (TOCTOU) race: a goroutine checks a condition, releases the lock, then acts — but between check and act another goroutine changes the condition. The fix is to hold the lock for the entire check-and-act sequence, or use an atomic compare-and-swap.

// BUGGY: check-then-act race — lock released between check and act
type Cache struct {
    mu    sync.Mutex
    items map[string]string
}

func (c *Cache) GetOrComputeBuggy(key string, compute func() string) string {
    c.mu.Lock()
    val, ok := c.items[key] // CHECK
    c.mu.Unlock()
    if ok { return val }
    // ← Another goroutine may compute and cache here
    result := compute()      // expensive — no lock held
    c.mu.Lock()
    c.items[key] = result   // ACT — may overwrite another goroutine's result
    c.mu.Unlock()
    return result
}

// FIX 1: singleflight — one computation per key at a time
import "golang.org/x/sync/singleflight"

var group singleflight.Group

func (c *Cache) GetOrComputeSF(key string, compute func() string) string {
    v, _, _ := group.Do(key, func() (any, error) {
        c.mu.Lock()
        if val, ok := c.items[key]; ok {
            c.mu.Unlock()
            return val, nil
        }
        c.mu.Unlock()
        result := compute()
        c.mu.Lock()
        c.items[key] = result
        c.mu.Unlock()
        return result, nil
    })
    return v.(string)
}

// FIX 2: sync.Map.LoadOrStore — atomic check-and-store
var sm sync.Map
actual, loaded := sm.LoadOrStore(key, expensiveValue)
// CAUTION: expensiveValue is computed before the call regardless

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