How to properly stop the Thread in Java?

Question

I need a solution to properly stop the thread in Java.

I have IndexProcessorclass which implements the Runnable interface:

public class          


        

Answer 1

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.");
        } 
    }
}

Answer 2

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();

Answer 3

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();
 }