Programmatic deadlock detection in java

Question

How can I programmatically detect that a deadlock has occurred in a Java program?

Answer 1

One useful hint for investigation:

If you can catch the application red handed and suspect a deadlock has occurred, go and press "Ctrl-Break" in the java.exe console window (or "Ctrl-\" on Solaris/Linux). The jvm will dump the current status and stack trace of all threads, find out dead locks and precisely describe them.

It will look something like this:

Full thread dump Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.5.0_09-b03 mixed mode):

"[Test Timer] Request Queue" prio=6 tid=0x13d708d0 nid=0x1ec in Object.
    wait() [0x1b00f000..0x1b00fb68]
    at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
    at java.lang.Object.wait(Unknown Source)
    at library.util.AsyncQueue.run(AsyncQueue.java:138)
        - locked <0x02e70000> (a test.server.scheduler.SchedulerRequestQueue)

    ...

Found one Java-level deadlock:
=============================
"Corba service":
  waiting to lock monitor 0x13c06684 (object 0x04697d90, a java.lang.Object),
  which is held by "[Server Connection] Heartbeat Timer"
"[Server Connection] Heartbeat Timer":
  waiting to lock monitor 0x13c065c4 (object 0x0467e728, a test.proxy.ServerProxy), which is held by "Corba service"

Java stack information for the threads listed above:
===================================================
"Corba service":
    at test.proxy.ServerProxy.stopHBWatchDog(ServerProxy:695)
    - waiting to lock <0x04697d90> (a java.lang.Object)
    ...