Re: Exiting threads
Chris wrote:
When the run() method exits, the thread is dead and no longer consumes
thread-related resources. The thread object itself, though, may persist
if you still have a reference to it.
For example:
MyThread thread = new MyThread();
thread.start();
// Do other stuff here.
// Thread runs on its own, eventually dies.
// At this point, if the thread variable still points
// to an instance of MyThread, then it and everything it contains
// is still in memory.
// Do this:
thread = null;
Or better yet, just have the variable 'thread' pass out of scope.
Typical use:
public static void main( String [] args )
{
Runnable r = factory.createBasedOn( args );
Thread t = new Thread( r );
t.start();
}
't' goes out of scope after main() returns, so the variable reference
vanishes, enabling GC for the Thread object when it's finished.
This is idiomatically emphasized with
public static void main( String [] args )
{
Runnable r = factory.createBasedOn( args );
new Thread( r ).start();
}
--
Lew