Java equivalent of .NET's Environment.HasShutdownStarted - java

In .NET, you can check the Environment.HasShutdownStarted property to see whether your service is being unloaded for whatever reason, and perform graceful unloading/cleanup.
So instead of:
while (true) { }
...you can use...
while (!Environment.HasShutdownStarted) { }
Is there an equivalent thing in Java?

Perhaps you're looking for a shutdown hook? This allows you to specify a thread to be run when the application is closed (as long as it's not brutally forced closed with kill -9 or similar, but in that case no environment can guarantee to do anything on shutdown.)
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread() {
public void run() {
//Code here.
}
});
From a practical perspective, you should also make these threads quick to execute - since otherwise the application will appear to hang upon exiting, and no-one likes that (plus, the OS or user may choose to kill off the application, aborting the hook at an arbitrary point.)
You can add multiple shutdown hooks, and they will be executed concurrently (and in an arbitrary order.)
Removal of shutdown hooks can be down in a similar way by calling removeShutdownHook().

You could add a shutdown hook. Basically registers an unstarted thread that will run when the application terminates.
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread() {
public void run() {
// logic for making a clean shutdown...
}
})
The link above has a very good description of what happens during shutdown.

You can look at the shutdown hook API, and instead of doing
while(true) {
}
You can declare a member in your thread/runnable implementation to signify shutdown:
class MyRunnable implements Runnable {
private running= false;
public void setRunning(boolean running) {
running= running;
}
public void run() {
setRunning(true);
while(running) {
// do task
}
}
}
public static void main(String[] args) {
final MyRunnable myRunnable= new MyRunnable();
final Thread runThread= new Thread(myRunnable);
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread() {
public void run() {
myRunnable.setRunning(false);
}
});
runThread.start();
runThread.join();
}
This is not a perfect solution, but should get you at least in the right direction.

Related

Check if another Thread is interrupted, without polling

I'd like to check to see if a Thread is Interrupted, from some other Thread, without polling this to check - i.e. some kind of monitor.
Specifically, what I am trying to do is force-kill (Stop) a Thread when it is Interrupted. I will include a code example below of a trivial example of what I have done so far - it works, but polling to check if the Thread is interrupted is sub-optimal and I would like to avoid this.
public class ThreadTest
{
public static void main(final String[] args) throws InterruptedException
{
final Thread outerThread = new Thread()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
// Need to externally monitor the thread to detect and process interrupts (for cancellation)
final Thread thread = Thread.currentThread();
new Thread()
{
#Override
public void run()
{
while (true)
{
try
{
Thread.sleep(500);
}
catch (final InterruptedException e)
{}
if (thread.isInterrupted())
{
// Then kill it
thread.stop();
return;
}
}
}
}.start();
uninterruptibleForever();
}
};
outerThread.start();
// Ensure the thread has time to start up
Thread.sleep(500);
outerThread.interrupt();
// The thread should terminate at this point and not continue.
}
/** Some arbitrary task that runs forever and ignores interrupts */
public static void uninterruptibleForever()
{
while (true)
{
System.out.println(MessageFormat.format("I''m still running at {0}", new Date().toLocaleString()));
}
}
}
I can't recommend strongly enough that you don't use Thread#stop().
It should never have existed, was deprecated very quickly and frankly should have been removed about 20 years ago.
You have no idea what the thread is doing when you stop it and it is very easy to corrupt shared objects and leave external resources (e.g. files) in an invalid state.
Suppose the thread is in the middle of resizing a shared ArrayList<> there's risk the object will be corrupted and your whole program fails intermittently in ways you cannot fix.
Do not use Thread#stop() it is broken and cannot be fixed.
It's a terrible feature of Java that it leads people into invalid techniques regarding threads.
Caveat over - how about just overriding interrupt() in a sub-class?
public void interrupt(){
this.stop();
}
You've decided to sub-class Thread (rather than Runnable) so this will "work". "work" in the sense of what you're doing. Not actually work or anything.
The only valid way to solve this is have the thread you want to terminate co-operate by responding to interrupt() as an instruction to come to a suitable point and then terminate cleanly.
Or you can create another flag indicating the thread should end.
I don't know why you need to monitor the thread externally. But here is a small sample how you could do it if you really need it:
import java.util.LinkedList;
import java.util.List;
public abstract class MonitoredCallable implements Runnable {
private final List<InterruptedHandler> interruptedHandlers = new LinkedList<>();
protected abstract void runInternal() throws Exception;
#Override
public final void run() {
try {
runInternal();
} catch(Exception ex) {
}
for (InterruptedHandler interruptedHandler : interruptedHandlers) {
interruptedHandler.threadInterrupted(this);
}
}
public void addInterruptedHandler(InterruptedHandler interruptedHandler) {
this.interruptedHandlers.add(interruptedHandler);
}
public static interface InterruptedHandler {
void threadInterrupted(Thread t);
}
}
Now just use it like this:
MonitoredThread mt = new MonitoredThread() {
#Override
protected void runInternal() throws Exception {
//dosomething
}
};
mt.addInterruptedHandler(t->t.stop());

Java thread pool, how to stop a long running thread immediately using shutdownNow()?

I have a main thread that creates several threads using Executors
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(4);
Each thread has long running jobs (some legacy code from another team) which might run for hours.
Now I want to shutdown from the main thread using
executor.shutdownNow()
And I want the threads to be able to stop immediately, how could I do that?
In the thread, say we have such code:
public void run() {
doA();
doB();
doC();
...
...
}
Now my issue is, even if I called shutdownNow, the running thread will run to the end then stop. I'd like to know how to stop and exit.
It's a slightly tricky situation indeed!
Can we make use of a hook that the JDK has provided in the form of ThreadFactory that is consulted when the associated thread pool is creating a thread in which your legacy task will run? If yes, then why not make your legacy code run in a daemon thread? We know that the JVM exits when the last non-daemon thread exits. So, if we make each thread that the thread pool uses to run your legacy tasks a daemon thread, there is a chance that we can make the shutdownNow() call more responsive:
public class LegacyCodeExecutorEx {
public static void main(String[] args) throws InterruptedException {
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(2, new DaemonThreadFactory());
executor.submit(new LegacySimulator());
Thread.sleep(1000);
executor.shutdownNow();
}
static class LegacySimulator implements Runnable {
private final AtomicLong theLong;
LegacySimulator() {
theLong = new AtomicLong(1);
}
#Override
public void run() {
for (long i = 10; i < Long.MAX_VALUE; i++) {
theLong.set(i*i);
}
System.out.println("Done!");
}
}
static class DaemonThreadFactory implements ThreadFactory {
#Override
public Thread newThread(Runnable r) {
Thread t = new Thread(r);
t.setName("Daemon Thread");
t.setDaemon(true);
return t;
}
}
}
If you play with setDaemon(true) line, you will see that this code either responds to the exit of the main thread (which is non-daemon) either immediately or takes its own sweet time to finish the task.
Is making your legacy-code-running threads daemon threads a possibility? If yes, you could give this a try.
You need to include a flag in the Runnable object instantiation that checks between tasks whether you need to stop or not.
public void run() {
if(timeToShutdown) return;
doA();
if(timeToShutdown) return;
doB();
/*etc*/
}
Threads in Java operate at a (relatively) low level. Short of directly shutting down the entire JVM, the only way to manually force the stop of a Thread is using Deprecated behavior from Java 1.0/1.1, which pretty much noone wants you to use.

How to silently termintate a Java program with threads and locks

In C programs using system threads for example, I can pass a SIGINT with Ctrl+C and the process will be killed silently. But when I do the same thing to a Java program with threads, locks, semaphores et cetera, the JVM just stops there and I have to kill the process "outside", by closing the terminal or rebooting the system. How can a make a Java program silently exit as it should without closing the terminal when I see some wrong behaviors in runtime?
You can add a shutdown hook to the JVM that gets triggered when a SIGINT is received and then in there call Runtime.getRuntime().halt(0). That will kill the process. You can even use the Shutdown Hook to clean your running Threads.
[EDIT] My initial answer was to use System.exit() in the hook. But that will not work because System.exit will trigger the already running hook.
You can try this example with the hook and not registering the hook.
public class Exit {
public static void main(String[] args) {
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new ExitHok());
Thread t = new Thread(new Printer());
t.start();
}
private static class ExitHok extends Thread {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("Received shutdown");
Runtime.getRuntime().halt(0);
}
}
private static class Printer implements Runnable {
#Override
public void run() {
int counter = 0;
while (true) {
System.out.println(++counter);
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
}
}
}

How to manage worker thread lifecycles when main Java thread terminates?

I want to achieve the following: When my application starts, the main thread will start 1+ worker threads that should run in the background, and periodically do things behind the scenes. These should not block the main thread: once main starts the workers, it continues doing its own thing until:
The main thread finishes (normal application termination) - in the case of a command-line utility this is when the end of the main(String[]) method is reached; in the case of a Swing GUI it could be when the user selects the File >> Exit menu, etc.
The operating system throws a kill command (SIGKILL, etc.)
An unexpected, uncaught exception occurs in the main thread, effectively killing it (this is just an unpolite version of #1 above)
Once started/submitted from the main thread, I want all the worker threads (Runnables) to essentially have their own life cycle, and exist independently of the main thread. But, if the main thread dies at any time, I want to be able to block (if at all possible) the main thread until all the workers are finished shutting down, and then "allow" the main thread to die.
My best attempt so far, although I know I'm missing pieces here and there:
public class MainDriver {
private BaneWorker baneWorker;
private ExecutorService executor = Executors.newCachedThreadPool();
public static void main(String[] args) {
MainDriver driver = new MainDriver();
driver.run();
// We've now reached the end of the main method. All workers should block while they shutdown
// gracefully (if at all possible).
if(executor.awaitTermination(30, TimeUnit.SECONDS))
System.out.println("Shutting down...");
else {
System.out.println("Forcing shut down...");
executor.shutdownNow();
}
}
private void run() {
// Start all worker threads.
baneWorker = new BaneWorker(Thread.currentThread());
// More workers will be used once I get this simple example up and running...
executor.submit(baneWorker);
// Eventually submit the other workers here as well...
// Now start processing. If command-line utility, start doing whatever the utility
// needs to do. If Swing GUI, fire up a parent JFrame and draw the application to the
// screen for the user, etc.
doStuff();
}
private void doStuff() {
// ??? whatever
}
}
public class BaneWorker implements Runnable {
private Timer timer;
private TimerTask baneTask;
private Thread mainThread;
public BaneWorker(Thread mainThread) {
super();
this.mainThread = mainThread;
}
#Override
public void run() {
try {
timer = new Timer();
baneTask = new TimerTask() {
#Override
public void run() {
System.out.println("When the main thread is ashes...");
}
};
// Schedule the baneTask to kick off every minute starting now.
timer.scheduleAtFixedRate(baneTask, new Date(), 60 * 1000);
} catch(InterruptedException interrupt) {
// Should be thrown if main thread dies, terminates, throws an exception, etc.
// Should block main thread from finally terminating until we're done shutting down.
shutdown();
}
}
private void shutdown() {
baneTask.cancel();
System.out.println("...then you have my permission to die.");
try {
mainThread.join();
} catch(InterruptedException interrupt) {
interrupt.printStackTrace;
}
}
}
Am I on-track or way off-base here? What do I need to change to make this work the way I need it to? I'm new to Java concurrency and am trying my best to use the Concurrency API correctly, but stumbling around a bit. Any ideas? Thanks in advance!
The main thread must signal the worker threads to terminate (generally this is achieved just by using a flag) and then it should call join on every thread to wait for their termination. Have a look here: Java: How to use Thread.join
You can use Runtime.addShutdownHook to register an un-started thread that is executed when a JVM is terminated, the system is shutting down etc. This code can do some cleanup itself, or perhaps notify running daemon threads to finish their work. Any such cleanup code must be relatively fast, because on many systems programs have only a limited time to do cleanup before they're forcibly terminated.
Perhaps you could also consider making your background thread daemon threads. Then they will not block the JVM when main finishes and will be still running during the clean-up phase.
Note that you can't intercept SIGKILL - this signal is designed to be unavoidable and immediate. But it should work with SIGTERM, SIGHUP and similar signals.
Update: You can easily create ExecutorServices that run daemon threads. All you need is to create a proper ThreadFactory:
public static class DaemonFactory
implements ThreadFactory
{
#Override
public Thread newThread(Runnable r) {
Thread t = new Thread(r);
t.setDaemon(true);
return t;
}
}
than you create an ExecutorService like
public static void main(String argv[])
throws Exception
{
ExecutorService es
= Executors.newCachedThreadPool(new DaemonFactory());
// ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
es.submit(new Callable<Object>() {
public Object call() throws Exception {
Thread.sleep(100);
System.err.println("Daemon: " +
Thread.currentThread().isDaemon());
return null;
}
});
// Without this, JVM will terminate before the daemon thread prints the
// message, because JVM doesn't wait for daemon threads when
// terminating:
es.awaitTermination(3, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
}
Concerning Thread.join(), you shouldn't try to use it on threads managed by an ExecutorService. It's the responsibility of the executor to manage them. You have no reliable way how to enumerate its threads, the executor can create and destroy threads depending on its configuration etc. The only reliable way is to call shutdown(); and then awaitTermination(...);.
If SIGKILL is a unix "kill -9" there's nothing you can do about it.
For graceful exits, use a try/catch/finally in your main. The catch will catch your exceptions and allow you to do what needs to be done (recover? abort?) The finally will give you the hook to spin down your threads gracefully.
Reviewing your code quickly, I don't see where you're keeping track of your thread instances. You'll need those if you're going to tell them to spin down.
psuedocode:
static Main(...) {
ArrayList threads = new ArrayList();
try {
for (each thread you want to spin up) {
threads.add(a new Thread())
}
}
catch { assuming all are fatal. }
finally {
for(each thread t in threads) {
t.shutdown();
t.join(); /* Be prepared to catch (and probably ignore) an exception on this, if shutdown() happens too fast! */
}
}

Java Shutdown hook not run

I am new to Java/threads and I inherited something like the following code. It is a command line program that main() only starts 5-6 different kind of threads and exits with ^C. I want to add a shutdown hook to close all threads properly and adapted it the following way.
I added a Shutdown hook and a stopThread() method in all threads (like the one in MyWorker class)
The problem is that when I press ^C I don't see the end message from the Thread's run method. Is this done in the background or is there something wrong with my method. Also, Is there a better pattern I should follow?
Thanks
public class Main {
public static MyWorker worker1 = new MyWorker();
// .. various other threads here
public static void startThreads() {
worker1.start();
// .. start other threads
}
public static void stopThreads() {
worker1.stopThread();
// .. stop other threads
}
public static void main(String[] args)
throws Exception {
startThreads();
// TODO this needs more work (later)
Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(new Thread() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
stopThreads();
} catch (Exception exp) {
}
}
});
} }
public class MyWorker extends Thread {
private volatile boolean stop = false;
public void stopThread() {
stop = true;
}
public void run() {
while (!stop) {
// Do stuff here
}
// Print exit message with logger
}
}
Shutdown Hooks may not be executed in some cases!
First thing to keep in mind is that it is not guaranteed that shutdown hooks will always run. If the JVM crashes due to some internal error, then it might crash down without having a chance to execute a single instruction.
Also, if the O/S gives a SIGKILL (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SIGKILL) signal (kill -9 in Unix/Linux) or TerminateProcess (Windows), then the application is required to terminate immediately without doing even waiting for any cleanup activities. In addition to the above, it is also possible to terminate the JVM without allowing the shutdown hooks to run by calling Runime.halt() method.
Shutdown hooks are called when the application terminates normally (when all threads finish, or when System.exit(0) is called). Also, when the JVM is shutting down due to external causes such as user requesting a termination (Ctrl+C), a SIGTERM being issued by O/S (normal kill command, without -9), or when the operating system is shutting down.
When you call System.exit() or terminate via a signal, it stop all the existing threads and starts all the shutdown hooks. i.e. all your threads could be dead by the time you hook starts.
Instead of trying to stop threads cleanly, you should ensure resources are closed cleanly.
I guess you can shift your code to ExecutorService
private final ExecutorService pool;
pool = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(poolSize);
pool.execute(Instance of Runnable);
pool.shutdown();
ExecutorService.shutdown
Initiates an orderly shutdown in which previously submitted tasks are executed, but no new tasks will be accepted. Invocation has no additional effect if already shut down.
Try making your threads as daemon threads.
Add a constructor
public MyWorker(boolean isDaemon) {
this.setDaemon(true);
}
or set to daemon before calling start.
worker1.setDaemon(true);
worker1.start();
When you press Ctrl C and exit, the threads will be stopped.
What is happening here is that you invoke the stopThread() method, but you don't wait the the threads are actually finished before terminating.
If you invoke a join() on all threads before stoping the JVM, you will probably see your 'stop logs'.
public static void stopThreads() {
worker1.stopThread();
// .. stop other threads
for(Thread t: workers) {
t.join();
}
}

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