Thread stack traces with java 6 and jstack

 

Java 6 on Windows now supports the <jstack> utility as a mean to print stack traces (instead of relying solely on CTRL+BREAK).

Quick demo follows.

1) Write a program which is (pretty much) guaranteed to deadlock

public class Deadlock {

	public static void main (String args[]){

		final Object objA = new Object();

		final Object objB = new Object();

		new Thread() {
 		public void run (){
 			while (1==1) {
 				System.out.println ("Thread A synchronizing on objA");
 				synchronized (objA){
 					System.out.println ("Thread A synchronized on objA");
 					System.out.println ("Thread A synchronizing on objB");
 					synchronized (objB){
 						System.out.println ("Thread A synchronized on objB");
 					}
 				}
 			}
 		}
 	}.start();

		new Thread() {
 		public void run (){
 			while (1==1) {
 				System.out.println ("Thread B synchronizing on objB");
 				synchronized (objB){
 					System.out.println ("Thread B synchronized on objB");
 					System.out.println ("Thread B synchronizing on objA");
 					synchronized (objA){
 						System.out.println ("Thread B synchronized on objA");
 					}
 				}
 			}
 		}
 	}.start();

	}

}

2) Run the Deadock program

 

 

3) Get the deadlocked process id

 

4) Run jstack -> 1 deadlock detected.