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.

@author
unascribed
@version
1.63, 06/17/04
@since
JDK1.0
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
namethe name of the new thread group.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot create a thread in the specified thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
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
parentthe parent thread group.
namethe name of the new thread group.
Throws
NullPointerExceptionif the thread group argument is null.
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot create a thread in the specified thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Returns an estimate of the number of active threads in this thread group. The result might not reflect concurrent activity, and might be affected by the presence of certain system threads.

Due to the inherently imprecise nature of the result, it is recommended that this method only be used for informational purposes.

Return
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.
@since
JDK1.0
Returns an estimate of the number of active groups in this thread group. The result might not reflect concurrent activity.

Due to the inherently imprecise nature of the result, it is recommended that this method only be used for informational purposes.

Return
the number of active thread groups with this thread group as an ancestor.
@since
JDK1.0
Used by VM to control lowmem implicit suspension.
Parameters
bboolean to allow or disallow suspension
Return
true on success
@since
JDK1.1
@deprecated
The definition of this call depends on {@link #suspend}, which is deprecated. Further, the behavior of this call was never specified.
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
SecurityExceptionif the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
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
IllegalThreadStateExceptionif the thread group is not empty or if the thread group has already been destroyed.
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot modify this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group and its subgroups.

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

An application might use the 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 and its subgroups, 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 informational purposes.

Parameters
listan array into which to place the list of threads.
Return
the number of threads put into the array.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread does not have permission to enumerate this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Copies into the specified array every active thread in this thread group. If the recurse flag is true, references to every active thread in this thread's subgroups are also included. If the array is too short to hold all the threads, the extra threads are silently ignored.

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

An application might use the 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 informational purposes.

Parameters
listan array into which to place the list of threads.
recursea flag indicating whether also to include threads in thread groups that are subgroups of this thread group.
Return
the number of threads placed into the array.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread does not have permission to enumerate this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group.

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

An application might use the 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 informational purposes.

Parameters
listan array into which to place the list of thread groups.
Return
the number of thread groups put into the array.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread does not have permission to enumerate this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Copies into the specified array references to every active subgroup in this thread group. If the recurse flag is true, references to all active subgroups of the subgroups and so forth are also included.

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

An application might use the 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 informational purposes.

Parameters
listan array into which to place the list of threads.
recursea flag indicating whether to recursively enumerate all included thread groups.
Return
the number of thread groups put into the array.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread does not have permission to enumerate this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Indicates whether some other object is "equal to" this one.

The equals method implements an equivalence relation on non-null object references:

  • It is reflexive: for any non-null reference value x, x.equals(x) should return true.
  • It is symmetric: for any non-null reference values x and y, x.equals(y) should return true if and only if y.equals(x) returns true.
  • It is transitive: for any non-null reference values x, y, and z, if x.equals(y) returns true and y.equals(z) returns true, then x.equals(z) should return true.
  • It is consistent: for any non-null reference values x and y, multiple invocations of x.equals(y) consistently return true or consistently return false, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the objects is modified.
  • For any non-null reference value x, x.equals(null) should return false.

The equals method for class Object implements the most discriminating possible equivalence relation on objects; that is, for any non-null reference values x and y, this method returns true if and only if x and y refer to the same object (x == y has the value true).

Note that it is generally necessary to override the hashCode method whenever this method is overridden, so as to maintain the general contract for the hashCode method, which states that equal objects must have equal hash codes.

Parameters
objthe reference object with which to compare.
Return
true if this object is the same as the obj argument; false otherwise.
Returns the runtime class of an object. That Class object is the object that is locked by static synchronized methods of the represented class.
Return
The java.lang.Class object that represents the runtime class of the object. The result is of type {@code Class} where X is the erasure of the static type of the expression on which getClass is called.
Returns the maximum priority of this thread group. Threads that are part of this group cannot have a higher priority than the maximum priority.
Return
the maximum priority that a thread in this thread group can have.
@since
JDK1.0
Returns the name of this thread group.
Return
the name of this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
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.

Return
the parent of this thread group. The top-level thread group is the only thread group whose parent is null.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot modify this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Returns a hash code value for the object. This method is supported for the benefit of hashtables such as those provided by java.util.Hashtable.

The general contract of hashCode is:

  • Whenever it is invoked on the same object more than once during an execution of a Java application, the hashCode method must consistently return the same integer, provided no information used in equals comparisons on the object is modified. This integer need not remain consistent from one execution of an application to another execution of the same application.
  • If two objects are equal according to the equals(Object) method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce the same integer result.
  • It is not required that if two objects are unequal according to the method, then calling the hashCode method on each of the two objects must produce distinct integer results. However, the programmer should be aware that producing distinct integer results for unequal objects may improve the performance of hashtables.

As much as is reasonably practical, the hashCode method defined by class Object does return distinct integers for distinct objects. (This is typically implemented by converting the internal address of the object into an integer, but this implementation technique is not required by the JavaTM programming language.)

Return
a hash code value for this object.
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
SecurityExceptionif the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.
@since
1.2
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.
Return
true if this thread group is a daemon thread group; false otherwise.
@since
JDK1.0
Tests if this thread group has been destroyed.
Return
true if this object is destroyed
@since
JDK1.1
Prints information about this thread group to the standard output. This method is useful only for debugging.
@since
JDK1.0
Wakes up a single thread that is waiting on this object's monitor. If any threads are waiting on this object, one of them is chosen to be awakened. The choice is arbitrary and occurs at the discretion of the implementation. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened thread will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened thread will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened thread enjoys no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. A thread becomes the owner of the object's monitor in one of three ways:

  • By executing a synchronized instance method of that object.
  • By executing the body of a synchronized statement that synchronizes on the object.
  • For objects of type Class, by executing a synchronized static method of that class.

Only one thread at a time can own an object's monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Wakes up all threads that are waiting on this object's monitor. A thread waits on an object's monitor by calling one of the wait methods.

The awakened threads will not be able to proceed until the current thread relinquishes the lock on this object. The awakened threads will compete in the usual manner with any other threads that might be actively competing to synchronize on this object; for example, the awakened threads enjoy no reliable privilege or disadvantage in being the next thread to lock this object.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
Tests if this thread group is either the thread group argument or one of its ancestor thread groups.
Parameters
ga thread group.
Return
true if this thread group is the thread group argument or one of its ancestor thread groups; false otherwise.
@since
JDK1.0
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
SecurityExceptionif the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
@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 {@link Thread#suspend} for details.
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
daemonif true, marks this thread group as a daemon thread group; otherwise, marks this thread group as normal.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot modify this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
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 , the maximum priority of the group remains unchanged.

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
prithe new priority of the thread group.
Throws
SecurityExceptionif the current thread cannot modify this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
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
SecurityExceptionif the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
@deprecated
This method is inherently unsafe. See {@link Thread#stop} 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
SecurityExceptionif the current thread is not allowed to access this thread group or any of the threads in the thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
@deprecated
This method is inherently deadlock-prone. See {@link Thread#suspend} for details.
Returns a string representation of this Thread group.
Return
a string representation of this thread group.
@since
JDK1.0
Method invoked when the given thread terminates due to the given uncaught exception.

Any exception thrown by this method will be ignored by the Java Virtual Machine.

Parameters
tthe thread
ethe exception
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object. In other words, this method behaves exactly as if it simply performs the call wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method. The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait();
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Throws
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until either another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or a specified amount of time has elapsed.

The current thread must own this object's monitor.

This method causes the current thread (call it T) to place itself in the wait set for this object and then to relinquish any and all synchronization claims on this object. Thread T becomes disabled for thread scheduling purposes and lies dormant until one of four things happens:

  • Some other thread invokes the notify method for this object and thread T happens to be arbitrarily chosen as the thread to be awakened.
  • Some other thread invokes the notifyAll method for this object.
  • Some other thread interrupts thread T.
  • The specified amount of real time has elapsed, more or less. If timeout is zero, however, then real time is not taken into consideration and the thread simply waits until notified.
The thread T is then removed from the wait set for this object and re-enabled for thread scheduling. It then competes in the usual manner with other threads for the right to synchronize on the object; once it has gained control of the object, all its synchronization claims on the object are restored to the status quo ante - that is, to the situation as of the time that the wait method was invoked. Thread T then returns from the invocation of the wait method. Thus, on return from the wait method, the synchronization state of the object and of thread T is exactly as it was when the wait method was invoked.

A thread can also wake up without being notified, interrupted, or timing out, a so-called spurious wakeup. While this will rarely occur in practice, applications must guard against it by testing for the condition that should have caused the thread to be awakened, and continuing to wait if the condition is not satisfied. In other words, waits should always occur in loops, like this one:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
(For more information on this topic, see Section 3.2.3 in Doug Lea's "Concurrent Programming in Java (Second Edition)" (Addison-Wesley, 2000), or Item 50 in Joshua Bloch's "Effective Java Programming Language Guide" (Addison-Wesley, 2001).

If the current thread is interrupted by another thread while it is waiting, then an InterruptedException is thrown. This exception is not thrown until the lock status of this object has been restored as described above.

Note that the wait method, as it places the current thread into the wait set for this object, unlocks only this object; any other objects on which the current thread may be synchronized remain locked while the thread waits.

This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.

Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of the object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.
Causes current thread to wait until another thread invokes the method or the method for this object, or some other thread interrupts the current thread, or a certain amount of real time has elapsed.

This method is similar to the wait method of one argument, but it allows finer control over the amount of time to wait for a notification before giving up. The amount of real time, measured in nanoseconds, is given by:

 1000000*timeout+nanos

In all other respects, this method does the same thing as the method of one argument. In particular, wait(0, 0) means the same thing as wait(0).

The current thread must own this object's monitor. The thread releases ownership of this monitor and waits until either of the following two conditions has occurred:

  • Another thread notifies threads waiting on this object's monitor to wake up either through a call to the notify method or the notifyAll method.
  • The timeout period, specified by timeout milliseconds plus nanos nanoseconds arguments, has elapsed.

The thread then waits until it can re-obtain ownership of the monitor and resumes execution.

As in the one argument version, interrupts and spurious wakeups are possible, and this method should always be used in a loop:

     synchronized (obj) {
         while (<condition does not hold>)
             obj.wait(timeout, nanos);
         ... // Perform action appropriate to condition
     }
 
This method should only be called by a thread that is the owner of this object's monitor. See the notify method for a description of the ways in which a thread can become the owner of a monitor.
Parameters
timeoutthe maximum time to wait in milliseconds.
nanosadditional time, in nanoseconds range 0-999999.
Throws
IllegalArgumentExceptionif the value of timeout is negative or the value of nanos is not in the range 0-999999.
IllegalMonitorStateExceptionif the current thread is not the owner of this object's monitor.
InterruptedExceptionif another thread interrupted the current thread before or while the current thread was waiting for a notification. The interrupted status of the current thread is cleared when this exception is thrown.