in java: how can i terminate execution of all threads without waiting for them to finish their jobs using ExecutorService?

Question

I have the code below, where executor is type ExecutorService:

Runnable worker = new MyRunnable(x, y, p);
                executor.execute(worker);

When a number prints p times, i want the execution of all threads to be terminated cleanly without waiting the other threads to finish their jobs. How can i do that?

You can shutdown the executor, but your thread's tasks need to be able to handle [interruption](http://docs.oracle.com/javase/tutorial/essential/concurrency/interrupt.html). — Sotirios Delimanolis, Mar 30 '15 at 15:08
@sotris delimanolis i use executor.shutdown() but results are still being printed in the console. — c_user89, Mar 30 '15 at 15:10
_but your thread's tasks need to be able to handle interruption._ — Sotirios Delimanolis, Mar 30 '15 at 15:11
Not sure if relevant, but you can mark threads as [*daemons*](http://stackoverflow.com/q/2213340/706456) and when your *process* terminates the daemon threads die along. — oleksii, Mar 30 '15 at 15:13
for executor.shutdownNow() my program never builds succesful. — c_user89, Mar 30 '15 at 15:25

score 3 · Answer 1 · answered Mar 30 '15 at 15:08

You cannot cleanly terminate threads, much like in the days of MS DOS you couldn't cleanly terminate a program. The reason is that there is no equivalent of interprocess isolation at the level of threads, they all share the same address space and other resources.

Your only option is to explicitly implement a cooperative protocol based on thread interruption which will make the threads quit what they are doing on their own and end.

score 1 · Answer 2 · answered Mar 30 '15 at 15:12

Try executor.shutdownNow() for this. But, as said in ExecutorService Javadoc,

There are no guarantees beyond best-effort attempts to stop processing actively executing tasks. For example, typical implementations will cancel via Thread.interrupt(), so any task that fails to respond to interrupts may never terminate.

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/util/concurrent/ExecutorService.html#shutdownNow%28%29

in java: how can i terminate execution of all threads without waiting for them to finish their jobs using ExecutorService?

2 Answers2