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Let java program run indefinitely - restart when it crashes

I have a java program that should run on a Windows machine. It should run "forever", i.e. when the JVM or the program crashes, it should be restarted. When the computer is restarted it should also be restarted.
I saw advice to wrap the program as a "Windows service", but the tools I found seem to be either costly, complicated or outdated.
Can somebody describe me a straightforward way to achieve the desired behaviour?

For the part where you want to start the program after restart you can create a simple batch (.Bat) file and u can put that file in the startup folder.
Also you can use the same file for running the program when it crashes. you can use tasklist command and check if your java program is running and if it is not .just start the program.
Just check our windows batch this is one of the best things you can get everything for doing anything on windows without anything expensive

Yet Another Java Service Wrapper is a tool that easily wraps your Java program into a Windows service. Just start the program, note down the PID and enter it into the wrapper. Two things, which are probably universal to services, should be noted:
For connection to the network, you need to specify an account with the necessary rights.
Connected network drives are not available.

How do I stop a daemon thread that does scheduled database backup ?

I've written a very simple command line programme that uses mysqldump to dump data at a specified interval. I wanted it to be running after I run the programme and I disconnect putty ssh connection.
But as soon as I exit the ssh connection, the programme shuts down.
I think I can make my programme run even after I disconnected from the ssh by using daemon threads but I'm worried about not being able to find and stop unnecessary duplicate daemon threads.
The scenario I'm decribing is...
1. I log into the server using putty.
2. Turn on the auto backup programme.
3. I exit the putty connection.
---the daemon is running
4. Hopefully, when I log into the server again, I have a way to stop the auto backup programme if needed.
Cron jobs and DBMS specific methods are out of my options. I'd like to learn how to do the job described above and use it where ever the situation fits not just database backup.
Any good ideas ? : )

In short, you have to launch your program in a special way, and you have (at least) two options: nohup or screen.
Let's now discuss why and how each one works.
nohup
Java's daemon threads is not what you are looking for, they have nothing to do with the issue. You can use normal threads (or even a single-threaded java program). You just need to change the way you launch your java program.
I have many executable jars that run as "daemons" on a bunch of servers, and I made a simple launch script that prepares the environment and makes it possible to terminate the SSH connection without stopping it. The main part is how to invoke the JVM: you use nohup.
nohup java -jar myfile.jar > stdout.log &
From nohup's man,
nohup - run a command immune to hangups, with output to a non-tty
So, when you terminate your SSH connection, it will send SIGHUP to all processes it started which would terminate them as you are observing. With nohup, however, your process is immune to it.
Also, note that I redirect the standard output to a file called stdout.log. This is done so that you can see whatever your program writes to STDOUT (generally some logging information that would be useful for debugging).
To terminate your program, you can use jps to list the PID of your process (say it's 123), then call kill 123. Note that for this to work your program needs to correctly handle this kind of shutdown (which involves adding a shutdown hook with Runtime.getRuntime().addShutdownHook(...) which will terminate all the threads you launched).
If, for whatever reason (a bug, or you didn't implement a graceful shutdown), the program won't terminate after issuing the kill command (which sends the process a SIGTERM), you can change the signal it sends to SIGKILL with kill -9 123, which will simply destroy the process. Mind that this can be as dangerous as a power failure (ie, suppose you are in the middle of the try block of a try {} finally {} -- your finally block will not execute!).
screen
There's an alternative, which is to use SCREEN. With it, you launch a shell that is also immune to shutdowns, and that you can share among many connections. To use it, connect to your server, and then:
screen -R
A new shell will start, in which you run your java program as normal:
java -jar myfile.jar
To make it go to the background, just press ctrl+a ctrl+d. To bring it back to the front, just execute screen -R again. If you wish to terminate your program, you could do so by entering the screen session again and pressing ctrl+c (if your java program correctly deals with this kind of shutdown).

Two possibilities for scheduled tasks, in order from least to most complex, are the TimerTask and the Quartz Scheduler. Both offer the option to cancel/delete the scheduled job.

Using Java to spawn a process and keep it running after parent quits

As the title suggests is it possible to execute another java app from within a java app and keep the children running after main application quits?

I guess you could do
Runtime.getRuntime().exec(command);
where command is a java command

Maybe make the sub-process a service?

If you want to quit the JVM together with the main application, then use Fortega's suggestion (it's probably the best way to do it)!
There's also another approach, if you don't want to create new processes: You could run everything in a separate Thread, also the "main application". This would not exit the Java Virtual Machine, and the threads would run until they're finished (except if you set them up as Daemon threads).

i want to continously run my java threads

I am running my java application where i have used threads...
i am running this application using ant command on the terminal..
But when i close my terminal or press ctrl+c,then java program which was running stops...
Please help me out to solve this as i want to run this program continously...

If you kill the Java process, Java will no longer be running. If you want the threads to keep running continuously, the Java program must remain active.
Invoking such a program with ant is not usually the way to do it. On Unix-like systems, you would typically run such a program in the background via /etc/init.d startup scripts. In Windows the equivalent would be starting your program as a service, though I'm not sure of the intricacies involved in getting Java to run this way.
If you're running something from a concole - how about just not killing it and minimising the console? If you're starting it from Linux (or Cygwin) just append a & to the end of the command line and the process will run in the background.
Tell us more about your environment, and what compromises you're prepared to put up with (e.g. having a minimised console window sit in the taskbar) and we can help you more. At the moment, the only definitive answer I can give is that "yes - Ctrl-C will kill your program (as intended). If you want it to keep running, don't tell it to stop running." :-)

You can run your application as a service in linux or windows.

Have a look at the screen command for Linux.

I guess this is desired behavior. If you terminate your application, It gets shut down.
If you wish to run the application in the background you should consider making it a windows service or a deamon.
If you wish to continue running it as a application on *nix, you can consider to use GNU Screen.

Run the ant command in the background and redirect its output to a file:
ant &> my.log &.
NB: this issue does not seems thread related (unless I've misunderstood it).

It sounds like you want to daemonize your ant task. I'd suggest the following command:
nohup ant &> ant.log < /dev/null &
The nohup will allow the program to continue to run after you close the terminal.

I'm surprised nobody has mentioned the all-too-famous Java Service Wrapper. This is an excellent piece of software if you are developing long-running processes (a.k.a services).

Can a Java.exe JVM restart itself somehow?

Can a Java.exe JVM restart itself somehow? If you have a Java program running in a DOS shell (NOT as a service), what is the cleanest, most efficient way for it to shut down, close the shell, and restart itself with a different Windows process id and re-open in a different shell with a reloaded classpath?
I expect it's not possible but I thought I should ask and learn from other people by asking.
NOTE: If anyone knows how Eclipse IDE is able to restart itself so cleanly, that is the method I am wanting to use.

The Java Service Wrapper can help here. You can run your Java process under it but not necessarily as a service. You can define restart characteristics, such that if it exits, the Java program is restarted (either by System.exit() or calling WrapperManager.restart()).

The cleanest and simplest way to do that would be to run the program from a DOS batch file (or CMD script, if you prefer). Build a loop into your DOS batch file. You put a :label near the beginning and a GOTO label below your Java process and off it goes. If need be, you can break out of the loop using Ctrl-C.

Create a separate executable that takes a process ID and a command as command line argument, waits for the specified process to close and then runs the specified command. Launch that program, then exit the current instance.
You can either embed that program in your primary program and copy it to a temporary directory to execute it, or include it side-by-side with your program.