2.19 Control+Break Handler

On Oracle Solaris or Linux operating systems, the combination of pressing the Control key and the backslash (\) key at the application console (standard input) causes the Java HotSpot VM to print a thread dump to the application's standard output. On Windows, the equivalent key sequence is the Control and Break keys. The general term for these key combinations is the Control+Break handler.

On Oracle Solaris and Linux operating systems, a thread dump is printed if the Java process receives a QUIT signal. Therefore, the kill -QUIT pid command causes the process with the ID pid to print a thread dump to standard output.

The following sections describe the data traced by the Control+Break handler:

Thread Dump
Detect Deadlocks
Heap Summary

2.19.1 Thread Dump

The thread dump consists of the thread stack, including thread state, for all Java threads in the virtual machine. The thread dump does not terminate the application: it continues after the thread information is printed.

Example 2-35 illustrates a thread dump.

Example 2-35 Thread Dump for All Java Threads in the JVM

Full thread dump Java HotSpot(TM) Client VM (1.6.0-rc-b100 mixed mode):

"DestroyJavaVM" prio=10 tid=0x00030400 nid=0x2 waiting on condition [0x00000000..0xfe77fbf0]
   java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE

"Thread2" prio=10 tid=0x000d7c00 nid=0xb waiting for monitor entry [0xf36ff000..0xf36ff8c0]
   java.lang.Thread.State: BLOCKED (on object monitor)
        at Deadlock$DeadlockMakerThread.run(Deadlock.java:32)
        - waiting to lock <0xf819a938> (a java.lang.String)
        - locked <0xf819a970> (a java.lang.String)

"Thread1" prio=10 tid=0x000d6c00 nid=0xa waiting for monitor entry [0xf37ff000..0xf37ffbc0]
   java.lang.Thread.State: BLOCKED (on object monitor)
        at Deadlock$DeadlockMakerThread.run(Deadlock.java:32)
        - waiting to lock <0xf819a970> (a java.lang.String)
        - locked <0xf819a938> (a java.lang.String)

"Low Memory Detector" daemon prio=10 tid=0x000c7800 nid=0x8 runnable [0x00000000..0x00000000]
   java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE

"CompilerThread0" daemon prio=10 tid=0x000c5400 nid=0x7 waiting on condition [0x00000000..0x00000000]
   java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE

"Signal Dispatcher" daemon prio=10 tid=0x000c4400 nid=0x6 waiting on condition [0x00000000..0x00000000]
   java.lang.Thread.State: RUNNABLE

"Finalizer" daemon prio=10 tid=0x000b2800 nid=0x5 in Object.wait() [0xf3f7f000..0xf3f7f9c0]
   java.lang.Thread.State: WAITING (on object monitor)
        at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
        - waiting on <0xf4000b40> (a java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue$Lock)
        at java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove(ReferenceQueue.java:116)
        - locked <0xf4000b40> (a java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue$Lock)
        at java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove(ReferenceQueue.java:132)
        at java.lang.ref.Finalizer$FinalizerThread.run(Finalizer.java:159)

"Reference Handler" daemon prio=10 tid=0x000ae000 nid=0x4 in Object.wait() [0xfe57f000..0xfe57f940]
   java.lang.Thread.State: WAITING (on object monitor)
        at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
        - waiting on <0xf4000a40> (a java.lang.ref.Reference$Lock)
        at java.lang.Object.wait(Object.java:485)
        at java.lang.ref.Reference$ReferenceHandler.run(Reference.java:116)
        - locked <0xf4000a40> (a java.lang.ref.Reference$Lock)

"VM Thread" prio=10 tid=0x000ab000 nid=0x3 runnable 

"VM Periodic Task Thread" prio=10 tid=0x000c8c00 nid=0x9 waiting on condition

The output consists of a number of thread entries separated by an empty line. The Java Threads (threads that are capable of executing Java language code) are printed first, and these are followed by information about VM internal threads. Each thread entry consists of a header line followed by the thread stack trace.

The header line contains the following information about the thread:

Thread name

Indication if the thread is a daemon thread

Thread priority (prio)

Thread ID (tid), which is the address of a thread structure in memory

ID of the native thread (nid)

Thread state, which indicates what the thread was doing at the time of the thread dump. See Table 2-6 for more details.
Address range, which gives an estimate of the valid stack region for the thread

2.19.2 Detect Deadlocks

In addition to the thread stacks, the Control+Break handler executes a deadlock detection algorithm. If any deadlocks are detected, the Control+Break handler, as shown in Example 2-36 prints additional information after the thread dump on each deadlocked thread.

Example 2-36 Additional Information for Deadlocked Thread

Found one Java-level deadlock:
=============================
"Thread2":
  waiting to lock monitor 0x000af330 (object 0xf819a938, a java.lang.String),
  which is held by "Thread1"
"Thread1":
  waiting to lock monitor 0x000af398 (object 0xf819a970, a java.lang.String),
  which is held by "Thread2"

Java stack information for the threads listed above:
===================================================
"Thread2":
        at Deadlock$DeadlockMakerThread.run(Deadlock.java:32)
        - waiting to lock <0xf819a938> (a java.lang.String)
        - locked <0xf819a970> (a java.lang.String)
"Thread1":
        at Deadlock$DeadlockMakerThread.run(Deadlock.java:32)
        - waiting to lock <0xf819a970> (a java.lang.String)
        - locked <0xf819a938> (a java.lang.String)

Found 1 deadlock.

If the JVM flag -XX:+PrintConcurrentLocks is set, then the Control+Break handler will also print the list of concurrent locks owned by each thread.

2.19.3 Heap Summary

The Control+Break handler also prints a heap summary. Example 2-37 shows the different generations (areas of the heap), with the size, the amount used, and the address range. The address range is especially useful if you are also examining the process with tools such as pmap.

Example 2-37 Heap Summary

Heap
 def new generation   total 1152K, used 435K [0x22960000, 0x22a90000, 0x22e40000
)
  eden space 1088K,  40% used [0x22960000, 0x229ccd40, 0x22a70000)
  from space 64K,   0% used [0x22a70000, 0x22a70000, 0x22a80000)
  to   space 64K,   0% used [0x22a80000, 0x22a80000, 0x22a90000)
 tenured generation   total 13728K, used 6971K [0x22e40000, 0x23ba8000, 0x269600
00)
   the space 13728K,  50% used [0x22e40000, 0x2350ecb0, 0x2350ee00, 0x23ba8000)
 compacting perm gen  total 12288K, used 1417K [0x26960000, 0x27560000, 0x2a9600
00)
   the space 12288K,  11% used [0x26960000, 0x26ac24f8, 0x26ac2600, 0x27560000)
    ro space 8192K,  62% used [0x2a960000, 0x2ae5ba98, 0x2ae5bc00, 0x2b160000)
    rw space 12288K,  52% used [0x2b160000, 0x2b79e410, 0x2b79e600, 0x2bd60000)

If the JVM flag -XX:+PrintClassHistogram is set, then the Control+Break handler will produce a heap histogram.