How can I interrupt a ServerSocket accept() method?

In my main thread I have a while(listening) loop which calls accept() on my ServerSocket object, then starts a new client thread and adds it to a Collection when a new client is accepted.

I also have an Admin thread which I want to use to issue commands, like 'exit', which will cause all the client threads to be shut down, shut itself down, and shut down the main thread, by turning listening to false.

However, the accept() call in the while(listening) loop blocks, and there doesn't seem to be any way to interrupt it, so the while condition cannot be checked again and the program cannot exit!

Is there a better way to do this? Or some way to interrupt the blocking method?

You can call close() from another thread, and the accept() call will throw a SocketException.

Set timeout on accept(), then the call will timeout the blocking after specified time:

http://docs.oracle.com/javase/7/docs/api/java/net/SocketOptions.html#SO_TIMEOUT

>Set a timeout on blocking Socket operations:

> ServerSocket.accept(); > SocketInputStream.read(); > DatagramSocket.receive();

>The option must be set prior to entering a blocking operation to take effect. If the timeout expires and the operation would continue to block, java.io.InterruptedIOException is raised. The Socket is not closed in this case.

Is calling close() on the ServerSocket an option?

http://java.sun.com/j2se/6/docs/api/java/net/ServerSocket.html#close%28%29

> Closes this socket. Any thread currently blocked in accept() will throw a SocketException.

You can just create "void" socket for break serversocket.accept()

Server side

private static final byte END_WAITING = 66;
private static final byte CONNECT_REQUEST = 1;

while (true) {
      Socket clientSock = serverSocket.accept();
      int code = clientSock.getInputStream().read();
      if (code == END_WAITING
           /*&& clientSock.getInetAddress().getHostAddress().equals(myIp)*/) {
             // End waiting clients code detected
             break;
       } else if (code == CONNECT_REQUEST) { // other action
           // ...
       }
  }

Method for break server cycle

void acceptClients() {
     try {
          Socket s = new Socket(myIp, PORT);
          s.getOutputStream().write(END_WAITING);
          s.getOutputStream().flush();
          s.close();
     } catch (IOException e) {
     }
}

The reason ServerSocket.close() throws an exception is because you have an outputstream or an inputstream attached to that socket. You can avoid this exception safely by first closing the input and output streams. Then try closing the ServerSocket. Here is an example:

void closeServer() throws IOException {
  try {
    if (outputstream != null)
      outputstream.close();
    if (inputstream != null)
      inputstream.close();
  } catch (IOException e1) {
    e1.printStackTrace();
  }
  if (!serversock.isClosed())
    serversock.close();
  }
}

You can call this method to close any socket from anywhere without getting an exception.

Use serverSocket.setSoTimeout(timeoutInMillis).

OK, I got this working in a way that addresses the OP's question more directly.

Keep reading past the short answer for a Thread example of how I use this.

Short answer:

ServerSocket myServer;
Socket clientSocket;

  try {    
      myServer = new ServerSocket(port)
      myServer.setSoTimeout(2000); 
      //YOU MUST DO THIS ANYTIME TO ASSIGN new ServerSocket() to myServer‼!
      clientSocket = myServer.accept();
      //In this case, after 2 seconds the below interruption will be thrown
  }

  catch (java.io.InterruptedIOException e) {
      /*  This is where you handle the timeout. THIS WILL NOT stop
      the running of your code unless you issue a break; so you
      can do whatever you need to do here to handle whatever you
      want to happen when the timeout occurs.
      */
}

Real world example:

In this example, I have a ServerSocket waiting for a connection inside a Thread. When I close the app, I want to shut down the thread (more specifically, the socket) in a clean manner before I let the app close, so I use the .setSoTimeout() on the ServerSocket then I use the interrupt that is thrown after the timeout to check and see if the parent is trying to shut down the thread. If so, then I set close the socket, then set a flag indicating that the thread is done, then I break out of the Threads loop which returns a null.

package MyServer;

import javafx.concurrent.Task;

import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.SocketException;

import javafx.concurrent.Task;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.net.ServerSocket;
import java.net.Socket;
import java.net.SocketException;

public class Server {

public Server (int port) {this.port = port;}

private boolean      threadDone        = false;
private boolean      threadInterrupted = false;
private boolean      threadRunning     = false;
private ServerSocket myServer          = null;
private Socket       clientSocket      = null;
private Thread       serverThread      = null;;
private int          port;
private static final int SO_TIMEOUT    = 5000; //5 seconds

public void startServer() {
    if (!threadRunning) {
        serverThread = new Thread(thisServerTask);
        serverThread.setDaemon(true);
        serverThread.start();
    }
}

public void stopServer() {
    if (threadRunning) {
        threadInterrupted = true;
        while (!threadDone) {
            //We are just waiting for the timeout to exception happen
        }
        if (threadDone) {threadRunning = false;}
    }
}

public boolean isRunning() {return threadRunning;}


private Task<Void> thisServerTask = new Task <Void>() {
    @Override public Void call() throws InterruptedException {
        
        threadRunning = true;
        try {
            myServer = new ServerSocket(port);
            myServer.setSoTimeout(SO_TIMEOUT);
            clientSocket = new Socket();
        } catch (IOException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        while(true) {
            try {
                clientSocket = myServer.accept();
            }
            catch (java.io.InterruptedIOException e) {
                if (threadInterrupted) {
                    try { clientSocket.close(); } //This is the clean exit I'm after.
                    catch (IOException e1) { e1.printStackTrace(); }
                    threadDone = true;
                    break;
                }
            } catch (SocketException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            } catch (IOException e) {
                e.printStackTrace();
            }
        }
        return null;
    }
};

}

Then, in my Controller class ... (I will only show relevant code, massage it into your own code as needed)

public class Controller {

    Server server = null;
    private static final int port = 10000;

    private void stopTheServer() {
        server.stopServer();
        while (server.isRunning() {
        //We just wait for the server service to stop.
        }
    }

    @FXML private void initialize() {
        Platform.runLater(()-> {
            server = new Server(port);
            server.startServer();
            Stage stage = (Stage) serverStatusLabel.getScene().getWindow();
            stage.setOnCloseRequest(event->stopTheServer());
        });
    }

}

I hope this helps someone down the road.

Another thing you can try which is cleaner, is to check a flag in the accept loop, and then when your admin thread wants to kill the thread blocking on the accept, set the flag (make it thread safe) and then make a client socket connection to the listening socket. The accept will stop blocking and return the new socket. You can work out some simple protocol thing telling the listening thread to exit the thread cleanly. And then close the socket on the client side. No exceptions, much cleaner.

You can simply pass the timeout limit (milli seconds) as a parameter while calling accept function.

eg serverSocket.accept(1000); automatically close the request after 1 sec