Develop Reference

How do I kill a Runnable running in a Thread?

I have made a class called AbortableThread that is supposed to start and stop a thread when I want to. The class is relatively small since it just contains this code :
public class AbortableThread implements Runnable
{
private Thread worker;
private Runnable target;
public AbortableThread(Runnable target)
{
this.target = target;
}
public void start()
{
worker = new Thread(this);
worker.start();
}
public void stop()
{
worker.interrupt();
}
public void run()
{
while (!worker.isInterrupted())
target.run();
}
}
However, calling stop() does not stop the Thread. I think that's because target.run() runs on a separate thread, but I have no clue.

There isn’t a good way to stop a Runnable from outside (as a last resort there is stop, but that isn’t a good way).
A Runnable needs to be a good citizen and check for interruption itself, using Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted().
If the Runnable catches InterruptedException, the interrupt flag will be cleared; the Runnable needs to restore the interrupt flag by calling interrupt on the current thread.
In the posted code what happens is that the Runnable executes on the worker thread and the worker never gets a chance to check the interruption flag until the Runnable completes. Assuming the Runnable is something like
() -> { try {
Thread.sleep(100000L):
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}}
then the sleep would be cut short when the worker is interrupted, but the interrupt flag would be cleared so the Runnable would be executed again in the next iteration of the loop.

Try something like this:
public class AbortableThread implements Runnable
{
private final AtomicBoolean running = new AtomicBoolean(false);
private Thread worker;
private Runnable target;
public AbortableThread(Runnable target)
{
this.target = target;
}
public void start()
{
worker = new Thread(this);
worker.start();
}
public void stop()
{
running.set(false);
}
public void run()
{
running.set(true);
while (running.get()) {
try {
// make an small sleep
Thread.sleep(1);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
System.out.println(
"Thread was interrupted, Failed to complete operation");
}
// do something here like the one in question; it must be none-blocking
target.run();
}
}
}
A complete example can be found here:
How to Kill a Java Thread

Is this a correct way to stop a thread if it hasn't finished after a set period of time?

public class TimeToDieThread extends Thread implements Runnable
{
private Runnable r;
private long lTimeLength;//time NanoTime
public TimeToDieThread(Runnable r, long lTimeLength)
{
super();
this.r = r;
this.lTimeLength = lTimeLength;
}
public void start() {
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
boolean bran = false;
while ((!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) && (bran == false)) {
r.run();
bran = true;
}
}
});
t.start();
// Sleep a for entire length, and then interrupt
try
{
Thread.sleep(lTimeLength);
} catch (InterruptedException e)
{
System.out.println("Interrupted, wop wop waa");
}
t.interrupt();
}
}

It is rarely necessary to use Thread directly (and it's definitely not necessary to extend Thread and implement Runnable, because Thread already implements Runnable).
Use an ExecutorService, submit a Runnable to that, and use the get(long, TimeUnit) method on the returned Future to wait for it to complete.
// Construct this somewhere. Note that you also need to shut it down somewhere.
// This is just an example of how you might construct it; other executors are
// available.
ExecutorService executorService = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(nThreads);
Future<?> future = executorService.submit(yourRunnable);
future.get(timeout, timeoutUnit); // Exception handling omitted.
// Cancel if it is still running.
future.cancel(true);

Standard Java pattern for wrapping a timeout around an errant process

I'm using a 3rd party function (say runThird()) that has a tendency to loop indefinitely and has no timeout facility built in. However, I can kill it (killThird()). Is there a proper way to do this (i.e. some concurrency construct)?
Here's my attempt at this:
java.lang.Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run(){
try {
Thread.sleep(TIMEOUT);
} catch (java.lang.InterruptedException e){
return;
}
killThird();
}
});
thread.start();
RunThirdResult rtr = runThird();
if (thread != null){
thread.interrupt();
}
But I'm not sure I like the overhead of creating a thread, using sleep and the contrivance of interrupting the thread if runThird() returns.

Let's assume runThird() retuns Integer ...
// ... in your class ...
private ExecutorService executor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
//... then somewhere, where you want to call runThird()
Future<Integer> handle = executor.submit( new Callable<Integer>(){
#Override Integer call(){
return runThird(); // Assume you made it available here ...
}
}
Integer result;
try{
result = handle.get(TIMEOUT,UNIT); // TIMEOUT and UNIT declared somewhere above ...
}
catch(TimeoutException ex) {
killThird();
// HANDLE result not being set!
}
// ... use result.

I would use a ScheduledExecutorService for this. Schedule it to be killed.
volatile RunThirdResult rtr;
ScheduledExecutorService service = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
service.schedule(new Runnable(){
public void run(){
if(rtr == null) killThird();
}
}, TIMEOUT_IN_MILLIS, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS);
RunThirdResult rtr = runThird();

Something like that? The most interesting part is StoppableWrapper#stop(), cause graceful cancellation is a hard thing and there's no common approach for all cases. One time you need to clear filesystem, other time to close network connection, etc. In your sample, you just call interrupt(), so I assumed runThird() honors being interrupted and will take care to clean things behind itself.
class Sample {
final ExecutorService tasksExecutor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
class StoppableWrapper implements Runnable {
private final Runnable task;
private final CountDownLatch executed;
StoppableWrapper(Runnable task, CountDownLatch executed) {
this.task = task;
this.executed = executed;
}
void stop() {
// e.g. Thread.currentThread().interrupt()
}
#Override
public void run() {
task.run();
executed.countDown();
}
}
public void scheduleTimingOutTaskExecution(final long timeout) {
final CountDownLatch executed = new CountDownLatch(1);
final StoppableWrapper command = new StoppableWrapper(new RunThirdInstance(), executed);
tasksExecutor.execute(command);
tasksExecutor.execute(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
if (!executed.await(timeout, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)) {
command.stop();
// additionally, you can make stop() return boolean after time-out as well and handle failure
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
// handle stopper exception here
}
}
});
}
}

Java Thread won't stop

I have a JRuby engine which evaluates some scripts and I want to close the thread if it takes more than 5 seconds.
I tried something like this:
class myThread extends Thread{
boolean allDone = false;
public void threadDone() {
allDone = true;
}
public void run() {
while(true) {
engine.eval(myScript);
if(allDone)
return;
}
}
(...)
th1 = new myThread();
th1.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
if(th1.isAlive())
th1.threadDone();
} catch(InterruptedException e) {}
if(th1.isAlive())
System.out.println("Still alive");
I also tried to kill the thread with th1.stop() or th1.interrupt() but the value retured by th1.isAlive() method is always true.
What can I do?
I want to add that myScript could be "while(1) do; end" and I cannot wait until it's completed. So I want to prevent scripts like that and kill the thread if it takes more than 5 seconds.

Another solution would be to use the built-in mechanism to interrupt threads:
public void run() {
while (!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
engine.eval(myScript);
}
}
...
th1 = new myThread();
th1.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(5000);
th1.interrupt();
}
This way, no need for an allDone field, and no risk in failing to synchronize.

To make your Thread stoppable you might want something like.
class MyTask implements Runnable {
public void run() {
try {
engine.eval(myScript);
} catch(ThreadDeath e) {
engine = null; // sudden death.
}
}
}
You can call Thread.stop(), but I suggest you read the warnings on this method first.
If you want a thread to run for up to 5 seconds, the simplest solution is for the thread to stop itself.
class MyTask implements Runnable {
public void run() {
long start = System.currentTimeMillis();
do {
engine.eval(myScript);
} while(System.currentTimeMillis() < start + 5000);
}
}
This assumes you want to run engine.eval() repeatedly. If this is not the case you may have to stop() the thread. It is deprecated for a good reason but it might be your only option.

How to properly stop the Thread in Java?

I need a solution to properly stop the thread in Java.
I have IndexProcessorclass which implements the Runnable interface:
public class IndexProcessor implements Runnable {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(IndexProcessor.class);
#Override
public void run() {
boolean run = true;
while (run) {
try {
LOGGER.debug("Sleeping...");
Thread.sleep((long) 15000);
LOGGER.debug("Processing");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception", e);
run = false;
}
}
}
}
And I have ServletContextListener class which starts and stops the thread:
public class SearchEngineContextListener implements ServletContextListener {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SearchEngineContextListener.class);
private Thread thread = null;
#Override
public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent event) {
thread = new Thread(new IndexProcessor());
LOGGER.debug("Starting thread: " + thread);
thread.start();
LOGGER.debug("Background process successfully started.");
}
#Override
public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent event) {
LOGGER.debug("Stopping thread: " + thread);
if (thread != null) {
thread.interrupt();
LOGGER.debug("Thread successfully stopped.");
}
}
}
But when I shutdown tomcat, I get the exception in my IndexProcessor class:
2012-06-09 17:04:50,671 [Thread-3] ERROR IndexProcessor Exception
java.lang.InterruptedException: sleep interrupted
at java.lang.Thread.sleep(Native Method)
at lt.ccl.searchengine.processor.IndexProcessor.run(IndexProcessor.java:22)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Unknown Source)
I am using JDK 1.6. So the question is:
How can I stop the thread and not throw any exceptions?
P.S. I do not want to use .stop(); method because it is deprecated.

Using Thread.interrupt() is a perfectly acceptable way of doing this. In fact, it's probably preferrable to a flag as suggested above. The reason being that if you're in an interruptable blocking call (like Thread.sleep or using java.nio Channel operations), you'll actually be able to break out of those right away.
If you use a flag, you have to wait for the blocking operation to finish and then you can check your flag. In some cases you have to do this anyway, such as using standard InputStream/OutputStream which are not interruptable.
In that case, when a thread is interrupted, it will not interrupt the IO, however, you can easily do this routinely in your code (and you should do this at strategic points where you can safely stop and cleanup)
if (Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
// cleanup and stop execution
// for example a break in a loop
}
Like I said, the main advantage to Thread.interrupt() is that you can immediately break out of interruptable calls, which you can't do with the flag approach.

In the IndexProcessor class you need a way of setting a flag which informs the thread that it will need to terminate, similar to the variable run that you have used just in the class scope.
When you wish to stop the thread, you set this flag and call join() on the thread and wait for it to finish.
Make sure that the flag is thread safe by using a volatile variable or by using getter and setter methods which are synchronised with the variable being used as the flag.
public class IndexProcessor implements Runnable {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(IndexProcessor.class);
private volatile boolean running = true;
public void terminate() {
running = false;
}
#Override
public void run() {
while (running) {
try {
LOGGER.debug("Sleeping...");
Thread.sleep((long) 15000);
LOGGER.debug("Processing");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception", e);
running = false;
}
}
}
}
Then in SearchEngineContextListener:
public class SearchEngineContextListener implements ServletContextListener {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SearchEngineContextListener.class);
private Thread thread = null;
private IndexProcessor runnable = null;
#Override
public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent event) {
runnable = new IndexProcessor();
thread = new Thread(runnable);
LOGGER.debug("Starting thread: " + thread);
thread.start();
LOGGER.debug("Background process successfully started.");
}
#Override
public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent event) {
LOGGER.debug("Stopping thread: " + thread);
if (thread != null) {
runnable.terminate();
thread.join();
LOGGER.debug("Thread successfully stopped.");
}
}
}

Simple answer:
You can stop a thread INTERNALLY in one of two common ways:
The run method hits a return subroutine.
Run method finishes, and returns implicitly.
You can also stop threads EXTERNALLY:
Call system.exit (this kills your entire process)
Call the thread object's interrupt() method *
See if the thread has an implemented method that sounds like it would work (like kill() or stop())
*: The expectation is that this is supposed to stop a thread. However, what the thread actually does when this happens is entirely up to what the developer wrote when they created the thread implementation.
A common pattern you see with run method implementations is a while(boolean){}, where the boolean is typically something named isRunning, it's a member variable of its thread class, it's volatile, and typically accessible by other threads by a setter method of sorts, e.g. kill() { isRunnable=false; }. These subroutines are nice because they allow the thread to release any resources it holds before terminating.

You should always end threads by checking a flag in the run() loop (if any).
Your thread should look like this:
public class IndexProcessor implements Runnable {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(IndexProcessor.class);
private volatile boolean execute;
#Override
public void run() {
this.execute = true;
while (this.execute) {
try {
LOGGER.debug("Sleeping...");
Thread.sleep((long) 15000);
LOGGER.debug("Processing");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception", e);
this.execute = false;
}
}
}
public void stopExecuting() {
this.execute = false;
}
}
Then you can end the thread by calling thread.stopExecuting(). That way the thread is ended clean, but this takes up to 15 seconds (due to your sleep).
You can still call thread.interrupt() if it's really urgent - but the prefered way should always be checking the flag.
To avoid waiting for 15 seconds, you can split up the sleep like this:
...
try {
LOGGER.debug("Sleeping...");
for (int i = 0; (i < 150) && this.execute; i++) {
Thread.sleep((long) 100);
}
LOGGER.debug("Processing");
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
...

Typically, a thread is terminated when it's interrupted. So, why not use the native boolean? Try isInterrupted():
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable(){
#Override
public void run() {
while(!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()){
// do stuff
}
}});
t.start();
// Sleep a second, and then interrupt
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
t.interrupt();
ref- How can I kill a thread? without using stop();

For synchronizing threads I prefer using CountDownLatch which helps threads to wait until the process being performed complete. In this case, the worker class is set up with a CountDownLatch instance with a given count. A call to await method will block until the current count reaches zero due to invocations of the countDown method or the timeout set is reached. This approach allows interrupting a thread instantly without having to wait for the specified waiting time to elapse:
public class IndexProcessor implements Runnable {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(IndexProcessor.class);
private final CountDownLatch countdownlatch;
public IndexProcessor(CountDownLatch countdownlatch) {
this.countdownlatch = countdownlatch;
}
public void run() {
try {
while (!countdownlatch.await(15000, TimeUnit.MILLISECONDS)) {
LOGGER.debug("Processing...");
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception", e);
run = false;
}
}
}
When you want to finish execution of the other thread, execute countDown on the CountDownLatch and join the thread to the main thread:
public class SearchEngineContextListener implements ServletContextListener {
private static final Logger LOGGER = LoggerFactory.getLogger(SearchEngineContextListener.class);
private Thread thread = null;
private IndexProcessor runnable = null;
private CountDownLatch countdownLatch = null;
#Override
public void contextInitialized(ServletContextEvent event) {
countdownLatch = new CountDownLatch(1);
Thread thread = new Thread(new IndexProcessor(countdownLatch));
LOGGER.debug("Starting thread: " + thread);
thread.start();
LOGGER.debug("Background process successfully started.");
}
#Override
public void contextDestroyed(ServletContextEvent event) {
LOGGER.debug("Stopping thread: " + thread);
if (countdownLatch != null)
{
countdownLatch.countDown();
}
if (thread != null) {
try {
thread.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
LOGGER.error("Exception", e);
}
LOGGER.debug("Thread successfully stopped.");
}
}
}

Some supplementary info.
Both flag and interrupt are suggested in the Java doc.
https://docs.oracle.com/javase/8/docs/technotes/guides/concurrency/threadPrimitiveDeprecation.html
private volatile Thread blinker;
public void stop() {
blinker = null;
}
public void run() {
Thread thisThread = Thread.currentThread();
while (blinker == thisThread) {
try {
Thread.sleep(interval);
} catch (InterruptedException e){
}
repaint();
}
}
For a thread that waits for long periods (e.g., for input), use Thread.interrupt
public void stop() {
Thread moribund = waiter;
waiter = null;
moribund.interrupt();
}

I didn't get the interrupt to work in Android, so I used this method, works perfectly:
boolean shouldCheckUpdates = true;
private void startupCheckForUpdatesEveryFewSeconds() {
threadCheckChat = new Thread(new CheckUpdates());
threadCheckChat.start();
}
private class CheckUpdates implements Runnable{
public void run() {
while (shouldCheckUpdates){
System.out.println("Do your thing here");
}
}
}
public void stop(){
shouldCheckUpdates = false;
}

Brian Goetz in his book suggests to use Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted() flag and interrupt() method for cancellation.
Blocking library methods like sleep() and wait() try to detect when a thread has been interrupted and return early. They respond to interruption by clearing the interrupted status and throwing InterruptedException, indicating that the blocking operation completed early due to interruption.
The JVM makes no guarantees on how quickly a blocking method will detect interruption, but in practice this happens reasonably quickly.
class PrimeProducer extends Thread {
private final BlockingQueue<BigInteger> queue;
PrimeProducer(BlockingQueue<BigInteger> queue) {
this.queue = queue;
}
public void run() {
try {
BigInteger p = BigInteger.ONE;
while (!Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted()) {
queue.put(p = p.nextProbablePrime()); // blocking operation
}
} catch (InterruptedException consumed) {
// allow thread to exit
}
// any code here will still be executed
}
public void cancel() {
interrupt();
}
}
If you put any code after catch block, it will still be executed as we swallow InterruptedException to exit from run() gracefully.
Just a couple words on how interrupt() works.
If interrupt is called on non-blocked thread, interrupt() will not cause InterruptedException inside run() but will just change flag isInterrupted to true and thread will continue its work until it reaches Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted() check and exit from run().
If interrupt is called on blocked thread (sleep() or wait()was called, in our case it's put() that might block a thread) then isInterrupted will be set to false and InterruptedException will be thrown inside put().