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Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ?

From "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org>
Newsgroups comp.lang.java.programmer
References <8fe57dc2-a323-4821-941c-4036663cbce5@googlegroups.com>
Subject Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ?
Date 2013-08-02 18:50 +0100
Message-ID <w8SdneFLYoQ8bGbMnZ2dnUVZ8jKdnZ2d@bt.com> (permalink)

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taqmcg@gmail.com wrote:
> The use of Thread.stop() is strongly deprecated, but I'm a bit confused
> by the explanation given in the documentation: (e.g.,
>[...]
> So what is the big hullaballoo about?

I suspect (modulo my other suspicion that you can't rely on exactly what 
Thread.stop() actually does in an actual implementation) that /if/ there is no 
mutable state shared with the rest of the program, then it might be OK.

Problem is: there's not a lot of point in a thread that shares /no/ state with 
the rest of the program.  If it's doing some computation (your? example of an 
untrusted regexp engine for instance) then it has to get the answer back to the 
calling thread somehow, and that is problematic.  Maybe there are some simple 
(in the sense of unsophisticated) mechanisms -- the calling thread polling a 
volatile variable perhaps (though I have doubts about the semantics of that: 
does reading a volatile variable guarantee that the data /referenced/ by that 
variable are consistent ?  My reading of the JLS doesn't find an answer to that 
question). But, say, stop()-ing a thread that is writing to a shared queue is a 
no-no.

/If/ you know that the thread is in a fixed, stable, state then you can 
probably kill it (assuming the state is suitable), but what about the 
end-points -- just as it is entering or leaving that state.  I find it 
difficult to imagine how you could be sure, avoiding race conditions, that it 
would be safe to stop() the thread unless your architecture was already such 
that implementing an alternative method wouldn't be easier (or at least, no 
harder -- and easier to justify to your peers ;-)

    -- chris 

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Thread

What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-07-31 06:36 -0700
  Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Marcel Müller <news.5.maazl@spamgourmet.org> - 2013-07-31 18:31 +0200
  Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-07-31 12:35 -0400
    Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-07-31 14:13 -0700
      Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? usvirtualobservatory@gmail.com - 2013-08-01 07:38 -0700
        Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-08-01 14:07 -0700
          Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Steven Simpson <ss@domain.invalid> - 2013-08-01 23:15 +0100
            Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-01 16:16 -0700
              Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-08-02 18:35 +0100
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie@pixelmemory.us> - 2013-08-03 19:21 -0700
              Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-08-02 21:58 -0400
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-03 05:08 -0700
  Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Kevin McMurtrie <mcmurtrie@pixelmemory.us> - 2013-07-31 21:09 -0700
    Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? usvirtualobservatory@gmail.com - 2013-08-01 08:00 -0700
      Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-08-01 11:25 -0400
        Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Eric Sosman <esosman@comcast-dot-net.invalid> - 2013-08-01 11:49 -0400
          Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-08-02 21:51 -0400
        Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-01 09:30 -0700
          Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-08-01 10:01 -0700
          Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-08-02 21:55 -0400
  Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Sven Köhler <remove-sven.koehler@gmail.com> - 2013-08-01 18:28 +0300
  Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-08-02 18:50 +0100
    Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-02 11:34 -0700
      Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arne Vajhøj <arne@vajhoej.dk> - 2013-08-02 22:04 -0400
        Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-08-03 10:10 +0100
      Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? "Chris Uppal" <chris.uppal@metagnostic.REMOVE-THIS.org> - 2013-08-03 10:28 +0100
        Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-03 05:00 -0700
          Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2013-08-11 17:46 +0000
            Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-13 11:47 -0700
              Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2013-08-13 20:18 +0000
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Patricia Shanahan <pats@acm.org> - 2013-08-13 13:51 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2013-08-14 22:42 +0000
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-13 14:10 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-08-13 15:22 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arivald <NOSPAMarivald@interia.pl> - 2013-08-14 01:08 +0200
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-08-13 16:45 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Arivald <NOSPAMarivald@interia.pl> - 2013-08-14 08:42 +0200
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Marcel Müller <news.5.maazl@spamgourmet.org> - 2013-08-14 09:48 +0200
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-14 08:55 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? markspace <markspace@nospam.nospam> - 2013-08-14 19:10 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-15 06:51 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? Lew <lewbloch@gmail.com> - 2013-08-15 17:35 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-16 06:30 -0700
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? blmblm@myrealbox.com <blmblm.myrealbox@gmail.com> - 2013-08-14 22:43 +0000
                Re: What is so bad aboud Thread.stop() ? taqmcg@gmail.com - 2013-08-15 12:12 -0700

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