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  1. JDK
  2. JDK-8273831

PrintServiceLookup spawns 2 threads in the current classloader, getting orphaned

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    • 2d
    • b22
    • generic
    • generic

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      Description

        ADDITIONAL SYSTEM INFORMATION :
        Tested under Tomcat 9.0.52, Windows 10, Coretto-JDK 11.0.12_7

        A DESCRIPTION OF THE PROBLEM :
        We are using Tomcat 9 and our application uses the following code snippet:
        DocFlavor flav = DocFlavor.SERVICE_FORMATTED.PRINTABLE;
        PrintService[] printers = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(flav, null);

        The underlying PrintServiceLookupProvider will spawn 2 threads, namely "PrinterListener" and "RemotePrinterListener" (around line 134 in sun.print.PrintServiceLookupProvider).
        These two threads are connected to the classloader of the web-application.
        During undeployment the classloader gets removed together with the two orphaned threads.
        Tomcat issues a warning on undeployment:
        "org.apache.catalina.loader.WebappClassLoaderBase.clearReferencesThreads The web application [ROOT] appears to have started a thread named [PrinterListener] but has failed to stop it. This is very likely to create a memory leak. "
        The two threads should not be started in the current classloaders context because that classloader might get deleted on web applications.

        STEPS TO FOLLOW TO REPRODUCE THE PROBLEM :
        Run the two lines within e.g. a jsp-page within Tomcat:
        DocFlavor flav = DocFlavor.SERVICE_FORMATTED.PRINTABLE;
        PrintService[] printers = PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(flav, null);

        Undeploy the application and the catalina.log will report the two orphaned threads which get killed.

        EXPECTED VERSUS ACTUAL BEHAVIOR :
        EXPECTED -
        The application should either be able to get a handle to these threads for a clean shutdown or maybe a flag to prevent starting these two threads.
        Another option would be to attach the threads to the root classloader to prevent problems during undeployment of web applications.
        ACTUAL -
        The two threads are recognized as orphaned and are forcely closed by web container.

        CUSTOMER SUBMITTED WORKAROUND :
        Before calling PrintServiceLookup.lookupPrintServices(...) we now change the thread's classloader to the parent and afterwards resetting the thread's classloader to the original one.

        FREQUENCY : always


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                serb Sergey Bylokhov
                webbuggrp Webbug Group
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                  Created:
                  Updated:
                  Resolved: