Programmatic deadlock detection in java

Question

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

Answer 1

There is code here: http://www.java2s.com/Code/Java/Development-Class/PerformingdeadlockdetectionprogrammaticallywithintheapplicationusingthejavalangmanagementAPI.htm

The magic happens in ThreadMonitor.findDeadlock():

  public boolean findDeadlock() {
    long[] tids;
    if (findDeadlocksMethodName.equals("findDeadlockedThreads")
        && tmbean.isSynchronizerUsageSupported()) {
      tids = tmbean.findDeadlockedThreads();
      if (tids == null) {
        return false;
      }

      System.out.println("Deadlock found :-");
      ThreadInfo[] infos = tmbean.getThreadInfo(tids, true, true);
      for (ThreadInfo ti : infos) {
        printThreadInfo(ti);
        printLockInfo(ti.getLockedSynchronizers());
        System.out.println();
      }
    } else {
      tids = tmbean.findMonitorDeadlockedThreads();
      if (tids == null) {
        return false;
      }
      ThreadInfo[] infos = tmbean.getThreadInfo(tids, Integer.MAX_VALUE);
      for (ThreadInfo ti : infos) {
        // print thread information
        printThreadInfo(ti);
      }
    }

    return true;
  }

This calls an API of the ThreadMXBean which has a different name in Java 5 and 6 (hence the outer if()).

The code example also allows to interrupt the locks, so you can even break the deadlock.