ThreadGroup

public class ThreadGroup extends Object
implements Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler

A thread group represents a set of threads. In addition, a thread group can also include other thread groups. The thread groups form a tree in which every thread group except the initial thread group has a parent.

A thread is allowed to access information about its own thread group, but not to access information about its thread group's parent thread group or any other thread groups.

Public Constructor Summary

ThreadGroup(String name)
Constructs a new thread group.
ThreadGroup(ThreadGroup parent, String name)
Creates a new thread group.

Public Method Summary

int
activeCount()
Returns an estimate of the number of active threads in this thread group and its subgroups.
int
activeGroupCount()
Returns an estimate of the number of active groups in this thread group and its subgroups.
final void
checkAccess()
Determines if the currently running thread has permission to modify this thread group.
final void
destroy()
Destroys this thread group and all of its subgroups.
int
enumerate(ThreadGroup[] list)
Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group and its subgroups.
int
enumerate(ThreadGroup[] list, boolean recurse)
Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group.
int
enumerate(Thread[] list)
Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group and its subgroups.
int
enumerate(Thread[] list, boolean recurse)
Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group.
final int
getMaxPriority()
Returns the maximum priority of this thread group.
final String
getName()
Returns the name of this thread group.
final ThreadGroup
getParent()
Returns the parent of this thread group.
final void
interrupt()
Interrupts all threads in this thread group.
final boolean
isDaemon()
Tests if this thread group is a daemon thread group.
synchronized boolean
isDestroyed()
Tests if this thread group has been destroyed.
void
list()
Prints information about this thread group to the standard output.
final boolean
parentOf(ThreadGroup g)
Tests if this thread group is either the thread group argument or one of its ancestor thread groups.
final void
resume()
This method is deprecated. This method is used solely in conjunction with Thread.suspend and ThreadGroup.suspend, both of which have been deprecated, as they are inherently deadlock-prone. See Thread.suspend() for details.
final void
setDaemon(boolean daemon)
Changes the daemon status of this thread group.
final void
setMaxPriority(int pri)
Sets the maximum priority of the group.
final void
stop()
This method is deprecated. This method is inherently unsafe. See Thread.stop() for details.
final void
suspend()
This method is deprecated. This method is inherently deadlock-prone. See Thread.suspend() for details.
String
toString()
Returns a string representation of this Thread group.
void
uncaughtException(Thread t, Throwable e)
Called by the Java Virtual Machine when a thread in this thread group stops because of an uncaught exception, and the thread does not have a specific Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler installed.

Inherited Method Summary

Public Constructors

public ThreadGroup (String name)

Constructs a new thread group. The parent of this new group is the thread group of the currently running thread.

The checkAccess method of the parent thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

Parameters
name the name of the new thread group.
Throws
SecurityException if the current thread cannot create a thread in the specified thread group.
See Also

public ThreadGroup (ThreadGroup parent, String name)

Creates a new thread group. The parent of this new group is the specified thread group.

The checkAccess method of the parent thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

Parameters
parent the parent thread group.
name the name of the new thread group.
Throws
NullPointerException if the thread group argument is null.
SecurityException if the current thread cannot create a thread in the specified thread group.

Public Methods

public int activeCount ()

Returns an estimate of the number of active threads in this thread group and its subgroups. Recursively iterates over all subgroups in this thread group.

The value returned is only an estimate because the number of threads may change dynamically while this method traverses internal data structures, and might be affected by the presence of certain system threads. This method is intended primarily for debugging and monitoring purposes.

Returns
  • an estimate of the number of active threads in this thread group and in any other thread group that has this thread group as an ancestor

public int activeGroupCount ()

Returns an estimate of the number of active groups in this thread group and its subgroups. Recursively iterates over all subgroups in this thread group.

The value returned is only an estimate because the number of thread groups may change dynamically while this method traverses internal data structures. This method is intended primarily for debugging and monitoring purposes.

Returns
  • the number of active thread groups with this thread group as an ancestor

public final void checkAccess ()

Determines if the currently running thread has permission to modify this thread group.

If there is a security manager, its checkAccess method is called with this thread group as its argument. This may result in throwing a SecurityException.

Throws
SecurityException if the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group.

public final void destroy ()

Destroys this thread group and all of its subgroups. This thread group must be empty, indicating that all threads that had been in this thread group have since stopped.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

Throws
IllegalThreadStateException if the thread group is not empty or if the thread group has already been destroyed.
SecurityException if the current thread cannot modify this thread group.
See Also

public int enumerate (ThreadGroup[] list)

Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group and its subgroups.

An invocation of this method behaves in exactly the same way as the invocation

{@linkplain #enumerate(ThreadGroup[], boolean) enumerate}(list, true)

Parameters
list an array into which to put the list of thread groups
Returns
  • the number of thread groups put into the array
Throws
SecurityException if {@linkplain #checkAccess checkAccess} determines that the current thread cannot access this thread group

public int enumerate (ThreadGroup[] list, boolean recurse)

Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group. If recurse is true, this method recursively enumerates all subgroups of this thread group and references to every active thread group in these subgroups are also included.

An application might use the {@linkplain #activeGroupCount activeGroupCount} method to get an estimate of how big the array should be, however if the array is too short to hold all the thread groups, the extra thread groups are silently ignored. If it is critical to obtain every active subgroup in this thread group, the caller should verify that the returned int value is strictly less than the length of list.

Due to the inherent race condition in this method, it is recommended that the method only be used for debugging and monitoring purposes.

Parameters
list an array into which to put the list of thread groups
recurse if true, recursively enumerate all subgroups
Returns
  • the number of thread groups put into the array
Throws
SecurityException if {@linkplain #checkAccess checkAccess} determines that the current thread cannot access this thread group

public int enumerate (Thread[] list)

Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group and its subgroups.

An invocation of this method behaves in exactly the same way as the invocation

{@linkplain #enumerate(Thread[], boolean) enumerate}(list, true)

Parameters
list an array into which to put the list of threads
Returns
  • the number of threads put into the array
Throws
SecurityException if {@linkplain #checkAccess checkAccess} determines that the current thread cannot access this thread group

public int enumerate (Thread[] list, boolean recurse)

Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group. If recurse is true, this method recursively enumerates all subgroups of this thread group and references to every active thread in these subgroups are also included. If the array is too short to hold all the threads, the extra threads are silently ignored.

An application might use the {@linkplain #activeCount activeCount} method to get an estimate of how big the array should be, however if the array is too short to hold all the threads, the extra threads are silently ignored. If it is critical to obtain every active thread in this thread group, the caller should verify that the returned int value is strictly less than the length of list.

Due to the inherent race condition in this method, it is recommended that the method only be used for debugging and monitoring purposes.

Parameters
list an array into which to put the list of threads
recurse if true, recursively enumerate all subgroups of this thread group
Returns
  • the number of threads put into the array
Throws
SecurityException if {@linkplain #checkAccess checkAccess} determines that the current thread cannot access this thread group

public final int getMaxPriority ()

Returns the maximum priority of this thread group. Threads that are part of this group cannot have a higher priority than the maximum priority.

Returns
  • the maximum priority that a thread in this thread group can have.

public final String getName ()

Returns the name of this thread group.

Returns
  • the name of this thread group.

public final ThreadGroup getParent ()

Returns the parent of this thread group.

First, if the parent is not null, the checkAccess method of the parent thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

Returns
  • the parent of this thread group. The top-level thread group is the only thread group whose parent is null.
Throws
SecurityException if the current thread cannot modify this thread group.

public final void interrupt ()

Interrupts all threads in this thread group.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

This method then calls the interrupt method on all the threads in this thread group and in all of its subgroups.

Throws
SecurityException if the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.

public final boolean isDaemon ()

Tests if this thread group is a daemon thread group. A daemon thread group is automatically destroyed when its last thread is stopped or its last thread group is destroyed.

Returns
  • true if this thread group is a daemon thread group; false otherwise.

public synchronized boolean isDestroyed ()

Tests if this thread group has been destroyed.

Returns
  • true if this object is destroyed

public void list ()

Prints information about this thread group to the standard output. This method is useful only for debugging.

public final boolean parentOf (ThreadGroup g)

Tests if this thread group is either the thread group argument or one of its ancestor thread groups.

Parameters
g a thread group.
Returns
  • true if this thread group is the thread group argument or one of its ancestor thread groups; false otherwise.

public final void resume ()

This method is deprecated.
This method is used solely in conjunction with Thread.suspend and ThreadGroup.suspend, both of which have been deprecated, as they are inherently deadlock-prone. See Thread.suspend() for details.

Resumes all threads in this thread group.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

This method then calls the resume method on all the threads in this thread group and in all of its sub groups.

Throws
SecurityException if the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.

public final void setDaemon (boolean daemon)

Changes the daemon status of this thread group.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

A daemon thread group is automatically destroyed when its last thread is stopped or its last thread group is destroyed.

Parameters
daemon if true, marks this thread group as a daemon thread group; otherwise, marks this thread group as normal.
Throws
SecurityException if the current thread cannot modify this thread group.

public final void setMaxPriority (int pri)

Sets the maximum priority of the group. Threads in the thread group that already have a higher priority are not affected.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

If the pri argument is less than Thread.MIN_PRIORITY or greater than Thread.MAX_PRIORITY, it is clamped to those values.

Otherwise, the priority of this ThreadGroup object is set to the smaller of the specified pri and the maximum permitted priority of the parent of this thread group. (If this thread group is the system thread group, which has no parent, then its maximum priority is simply set to pri.) Then this method is called recursively, with pri as its argument, for every thread group that belongs to this thread group.

Parameters
pri the new priority of the thread group.
Throws
SecurityException if the current thread cannot modify this thread group.

public final void stop ()

This method is deprecated.
This method is inherently unsafe. See Thread.stop() for details.

Stops all threads in this thread group.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

This method then calls the stop method on all the threads in this thread group and in all of its subgroups.

Throws
SecurityException if the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.

public final void suspend ()

This method is deprecated.
This method is inherently deadlock-prone. See Thread.suspend() for details.

Suspends all threads in this thread group.

First, the checkAccess method of this thread group is called with no arguments; this may result in a security exception.

This method then calls the suspend method on all the threads in this thread group and in all of its subgroups.

Throws
SecurityException if the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.

public String toString ()

Returns a string representation of this Thread group.

Returns
  • a string representation of this thread group.

public void uncaughtException (Thread t, Throwable e)

Called by the Java Virtual Machine when a thread in this thread group stops because of an uncaught exception, and the thread does not have a specific Thread.UncaughtExceptionHandler installed.

The uncaughtException method of ThreadGroup does the following:

  • If this thread group has a parent thread group, the uncaughtException method of that parent is called with the same two arguments.
  • Otherwise, this method checks to see if there is a {@linkplain Thread#getDefaultUncaughtExceptionHandler default uncaught exception handler} installed, and if so, its uncaughtException method is called with the same two arguments.
  • Otherwise, this method determines if the Throwable argument is an instance of ThreadDeath. If so, nothing special is done. Otherwise, a message containing the thread's name, as returned from the thread's getName method, and a stack backtrace, using the Throwable's printStackTrace method, is printed to the {@linkplain System#err standard error stream}.

Applications can override this method in subclasses of ThreadGroup to provide alternative handling of uncaught exceptions.

Parameters
t the thread that is about to exit.
e the uncaught exception.