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Java 8: Kill/Stop a thread after certain period of time

I have a java 8 based project which performs a certain function on a url. I need to modify the code snippet below so that it is capable of killing the thread/process running and run the next instance after a certain period of time irrespective of current process status.
I tried the following techniques to implement the thread kill procedure:
Executor service
Timer Task
Multithreaded thread kill
The code snippet for my most recent attempt is linked below.
#SuppressWarnings("static-access")
public static void main(String[] args) {
//fetch url from the txt file
List<String> careerUrls = getCareerUrls();
int a = 0;
DBConnection ds = null;
ds = DBConnection.getInstance();
try (java.sql.Connection con = ds.getConnection()) {
//read a single Url
for (String url : careerUrls) {
int c = a++;
ExecutorService executor = Executors.newFixedThreadPool(3);
Future<?> future = executor.submit(new Runnable() {
#Override
// <-- job processing
public void run() {
long end_time = System.currentTimeMillis() + 10000;
System.out.println("STARTED PROCESSING URL: " + url);
jobareaDeciderSample w = new jobareaDeciderSample();
w.mainSample(url, c, con);
}
});
// <-- reject all further submissions
executor.shutdown();
try {
future.get(120, TimeUnit.SECONDS); // <-- wait 2 Minutes to finish
} catch (InterruptedException e) { // <-- possible error cases
System.out.println("job was interrupted");
future.cancel(true);
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
;
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
System.out.println("caught exception: " + e.getCause());
} catch (TimeoutException e) {
System.out.println("timeout");
future.cancel(true);
}
// wait all unfinished tasks for 2 sec
if (!executor.awaitTermination(0, TimeUnit.SECONDS)) {
// force them to quit by interrupting
executor.shutdownNow();
}
}
} catch (Exception e) {
LOGGER.error(e);
}
}

You are correct with your approach.
calling cancel(true); on future is the right way to stop this task.
You have another problem- you cannot just stop a thread. (well you can, using stop() in thread class, but you should never do this).
cancel(true); sends information to the thread, that it should be stopped. Some java classes are responding to this information and throw interrupted exception. But some dont. You have to modify your task code, to check if Thread.currentThread().isInterrupted(), and if so, stop execution.
This is something you have to do in your code, which you call by
jobareaDeciderSample w = new jobareaDeciderSample();
w.mainSample(url, c, con);
You should do this in some long time spinning code, if you said you do some stuff with url, you should do it in your while loop, where you download information for the web. In other words, do this check only when your code spends 99% of the time.
Also you are calling
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
in your main thread, this does not do anything for you, as if you want to quit current thread, you can just call return

How to stop a running Thread in Java

I am using a Java based file conversion tool which converts PDF to DOCX, but sometimes while conversion it stuck, if input file size is more then 1 MB and start utilizing 100% CPU and more memory and keep running. I want to stop this continuous thread.
I know stop() function is deprecated.
Calling thread.interrupt(); is not helping, since thread is keep running.
There is no loop in the code ...so cannot check for interrupted flag in loop
How to Stop a running Thread t.
public class ThreadDemo implements Runnable {
Thread t;
PdfToDocConversion objPdfToDocConversion;
ThreadDemo() throws InterruptedException {
t = new Thread(this);
System.out.println("Executing " + t.getName());
// this will call run() fucntion
t.start();
Thread.sleep(2000);
// interrupt the threads
if (!t.interrupted()) {
System.out.println("Interrupted");
t.interrupt();
}
System.out.println(t.isInterrupted()); // true
System.out.println(t.getName());
System.out.println(t.isAlive()); /// still true
// block until other threads finish
try {
t.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
}
}
public void run() {
objPdfToDocConversion = new PdfToDocConversion();
try {
objPdfToDocConversion.convertDocToPdf();//inside this function thread got stuck
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
System.out.print(t.getName() + " interrupted:");
e.printStackTrace();
} catch (Exception e) {
// TODO Auto-generated catch block
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
public static void main(String args[]) {
try {
new ThreadDemo();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
}
}

You can build your own logic in killing the thread by the help of boolean flag.
public class RunningThread implements Thread {
private volatile boolean running = true;
public void run() {
while (running) {
try {
// Add your code here
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
if(!running){
break;
}
}
}
}
public void stopThread() {
running = false;
interrupt();
}
}
Here is the usecase:
RunningThread thread = new RunningThread();
thread.start(); // start the thread
thread.stopThread(); // stops the thread
The approach above is originally used by Google developers in on of there framework a.k.a Volley library.

Thread.interrupt() only sets a flag within the Thread object that the Thread should be interrupted. It does not cause the target Thread to throw an InterruptedException, instead code that can be interrupted must continually check that flag to see if someone has requested it be interrupted. That code then must handle it, usually by throwing an InterruptedException.

Some of the answers say about stopping the loop with volatile boolean isRunning but I do not see any loop in your example. Interrupting the thread does not actually interrupt it "right now". It just says "thread will be interrupted as soon as there will be such an opportunity". In your case I would suggest to close your PDF file and flag it with some boolean - then you can catch the IOException and if the flag is set - it means that you caused this situation and you can finish the thread.

Ping a server without freezing the Thread

I tried to use multiple threads, sadly no luck:
public synchronized boolean pingServer(final String ip, final short port) {
final boolean[] returnbol = new boolean[1];
Thread tt = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
Socket s = new Socket(ip, port);
s.close();
returnbol[0] = true;
} catch (IOException e) {
returnbol[0] = false;
}
}
});
tt.start();
try {
tt.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
tt.stop();
}
tt.stop();
return returnbol[0];
}
The main thread still Freezes for some reason.
Is there a "lagless" way to ping a server?

What exactly did you want to got in
try {
tt.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
tt.stop();
}
block?
Here you joined to parallel thread and waits till this thread will ends (got ping result).
You have next options:
Wait till ping ends
Don't wait... and don't got result
Use some concurrency classes like Future<> to got result (but you will block thread at moment you ask result if it not retrieved yet)
Or you can use some 'callback' function/interface to threw result from inner 'ping' thread.

You will need to remove the following lines from your code.
The tt.join() will force the main thread to wait for tt to finish.
try {
tt.join();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
tt.stop();
}
tt.stop();
Use a Future instead to get the result for later use

How to restart schedule when scheduleWithFixedDelay throws an exception?

I use ScheduledExecutorService to schedule some tasks which need to run periodically.
I want to know whether this code works to recover the schedule when an exception happens.
ScheduledExecutorService service = Executors.newScheduledThreadPool(1);
this.startMemoryUpdateSchedule(service);//See below method
//Recursive method to handle exception when run schedule task
private void startMemoryUpdateSchedule(ScheduledExecutorService service) {
ScheduledFuture<?> future = service.scheduleWithFixedDelay(new MemoryUpdateThread(), 1, UPDATE_MEMORY_SCHEDULE, TimeUnit.MINUTES);
try {
future.get();
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
logger.error("Exception thrown for thread",e);
future.cancel(true);
this.startMemoryUpdateSchedule(service);
} catch(Exception e) {
logger.error("Other exception ",e);
}
}

You should probably enclose the try block in a while(true) loop because if the first run does not throw an exception, you will exit your method and if the second call throws one, you won't catch it.
I would also run the recursive call in its own thread to avoid the risk of a StackOverFlow error if things go bad.
So it would look like this:
private void startMemoryUpdateSchedule(final ScheduledExecutorService service) {
final ScheduledFuture<?> future = service.scheduleWithFixedDelay(new MemoryUpdateThread(), 1, UPDATE_MEMORY_SCHEDULE, TimeUnit.MINUTES);
Runnable watchdog = new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
while (true) {
try {
future.get();
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
//handle it
startMemoryUpdateSchedule(service);
return;
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
//handle it
return;
}
}
}
};
new Thread(watchdog).start();
}

ScheduledExecutorService.scheduleWithFixedDelay(Runnable, long, long, TimeUnit) throws RejectedExecutionException (a child of RuntimeException) ==> We can catch it & retry submission once more.
Now as future.get() is supposed to return the result of one execution, we need to invoke it in a loop.
Also, the failure of one execution does not affect the next scheduled execution, which differentiates the ScheduledExecutorService from the TimerTask which executes the scheduled tasks in the same thread => failure in one execution would abort the schedule in case of TimerTask (http://stackoverflow.com/questions/409932/java-timer-vs-executorservice)
We just need to catch all the three exceptions thrown by Future.get(), but we can not rethrow them, then we won't be able to get the result of the subsequent executions.
The code could be:
public void startMemoryUpdateSchedule(final ScheduledExecutorService service) {
final ScheduledFuture<?> future;
try {
future = service.scheduleWithFixedDelay(new MemoryUpdateThread(),
1, UPDATE_MEMORY_SCHEDULE, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
} catch (RejectedExecutionException ree) {
startMemoryUpdateSchedule(service);
return;
}
while (true) {
try {
future.get();
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
Thread.currentThread().interrupt();
} catch (ExecutionException ee) {
Throwable cause = ee.getCause();
// take action, log etc.
} catch (CancellationException e) {
// safety measure if task was cancelled by some external agent.
}
}
}

Try to use VerboseRunnable class from jcabi-log, which is designed exactly for this purpose:
import com.jcabi.log.VerboseRunnable;
Runnable runnable = new VerboseRunnable(
Runnable() {
public void run() {
// do business logic, may Exception occurs
}
},
true // it means that all exceptions will be swallowed and logged
);
Now, when anybody calls runnable.run() no exceptions are thrown. Instead, they are swallowed and logged (to SLF4J).

I've added the loop as discussed.
public void startMemoryUpdateSchedule(final ScheduledExecutorService service) {
boolean retry = false;
do {
ScheduledFuture<?> future = null;
try {
retry = false;
future = service.scheduleWithFixedDelay(new MemoryUpdateThread(), 1, UPDATE_MEMORY_SCHEDULE, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
future.get();
} catch (ExecutionException e) {
// handle
future.cancel(true);
retry = true;
} catch(Exception e) {
// handle
}
} while (retry);
}

How to interrupt a task in progress with a timeout mechanism?

I'm currently developping a ftp client based on the package commons.net, in order to run tests to see the speed of the connection.
Basically my ftp test consists in connect to the server, logging onto it, and then start a cycle of download/upload as long as necessary, until the user decides to stop it via a button, then the current cycle will end and so will the test.
However, while running those tests, a situation requiering a timout mechanism has occured. the server was transmitting the file, and send the return code 226 (transfer complete) before it was indeed completed.
So my thread remains stuck, trying to empty the inputStream when it is not possible anymore.
My idea was to start a threaded timer with the downloading process, that will be reset each time a byte is transferred to my client.
When the timeout occurs, then an exception or so would be raised, and my client would react to it, abording the download.
I have read and try many solutions, among them:
- raising an exception from a thread -> the thread catches the exception and not the client;
- interrupt the client from the thread, so the client raises itself an interruptedException -> doesn't seem to work;
- using an executor with a timeout -> since I can't know the "normal" duration of a download, I can't give it to the executor when I start the task, moreover, the timer has to be reset when I receive data.
I read a lot about it on many forums, and didn't find any solution that seem to be adapted AND work in this case. If anyone has an idea of another way to do it?
This is the code of the action I am performing:
public double get(String fileName) {
[...]
org.apache.commons.net.io.Util.copyStream(stO,stD,client.getBufferSize(),
this.localSize,
new org.apache.commons.net.io.CopyStreamAdapter() {
public void bytesTransferred(long totalBytesTransferred,
int bytesTransferred,long streamSize) {
setProgressDL(totalBytesTransferred);
//reset the timer here
}
});
[...]
}
Here is some of the code of my test, launching my client:
public class TestFtp extends Thread {
[...]
public void run() {
System.out.println("Launching FTP test");
FtpClient client = new FtpClient(this.model, this, this.model.getFtpServer());
try {
//Attempting connection on the server
client.connect();
try {
// Attempting login
client.login(this.model.getUsername(), this.model.getPassword());
do {
client.changeDirectory("get");
// start timer
client.get(this.model.getDistantFileName());
// stop timer
client.changeToParentDirectory();
client.changeDirectory("put");
client.set(this.model.getDistantFileName(),
this.model.getNewFileName());
client.changeToParentDirectory();
try {
// Little pause between each test
Thread.sleep(500);
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
// Continue test until the user stops it
} while (this.continuous);
// Once the test is over, logout
client.logout();
} catch (FTPLoginException e) {
// If login fails, the test ends
System.out.println("Unable to login to the server.");
}
} catch (FTPConnectException e) {
// If connection error, the test ends
System.out.println("Unable to connect to the server.");
}
}
Thank you by advance if anyone can help, and if you need further information on my actual code, I can put more of it in here.

If you do not want to throw unecessary Exceptions, you should use a boolean flag that controls the execution of the thread (or runnable):
public class TestFtp extends Thread {
[...]
boolean abort;
public void run() {
[...]
do{
[...]
} while (this.continuous && !abort);
if (abort){
// You might want to do something here
}else{
// The stuff you normally do
}
}
}
And then simply set the abort flag to false from outside.
This way you can better control how you thread will terminate, as thread.interrupt(); will have an undefined behavior.

Well, I'm sorry but I admit I haven't read all your code, but if you want to interrupt a running thread, do two things:
run the thread code inside a try/catch block like this:
Example:
public void run() {
try {
// code to run
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
// thread interrupted, may want to do some clean up
// but must return as quickly as possible to avoid halting external code
}
}
Call the interrupt() method of the thread above externally when the need arises.
Example:
thread.interrupt();
This will tell the VM to throw the InterruptedException in your thread no matter what it's doing, giving you a chance to do some stuff.
I hope this is what you're looking for...
EDIT
Ok, a concrete example that works:
public class Driver {
private static int count = 0;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Thread t = new Thread(new Runnable() {
#Override
public void run() {
try {
bigTask();
} catch (InterruptedException ie) {
System.out.println("Interrupted thread! Count is " + count);
}
}
});
t.start();
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
System.out.println("Trying to interrupt thread");
t.interrupt();
} catch (InterruptedException e) {}
}
private static void bigTask() throws InterruptedException {
List<BigDecimal> bigs = new ArrayList<BigDecimal>();
for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
bigs.add(BigDecimal.valueOf(i));
if (Thread.interrupted()) {
throw new InterruptedException();
}
count = i;
}
System.out.println("Ok, added ten million items, count is " + count);
}
}