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Interesting Delay After Thread.Abort()

I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.

I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress meter.
I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.

I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons (which
call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I click
Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.

What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and the
actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I checked
the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It
looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint,
but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the
repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).

I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort() the
very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the
GC for the first time for the app or something)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/


Nov 16 '05 #1
20 2867
Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate a finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to call Thread.About

1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation the thread is being ripped down in)
2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain

Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.

I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress meter.
I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.

I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons (which
call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I click
Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.

What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and the
actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I checked
the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It
looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint,
but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the
repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).

I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort() the
very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the
GC for the first time for the app or something)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
Nov 16 '05 #2
But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in
general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of
TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate a
finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to
call Thread.About

1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation the
thread is being ripped down in)
2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain

Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method
on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.

I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
meter.
I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.

I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons (which
call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
click
Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.

What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and
the
actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
checked
the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It
looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint,
but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the
repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).

I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort() the
very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the
GC for the first time for the app or something)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]

Nov 16 '05 #3
Hmmm, what makes you believe that?

Thread.Interrupt throws a ThreadInterruptedException on the thread that can be caught, handled and if the thread really wanted to swallowed.

Thread.Abort throws a ThreadAbortException on the thread that can be caught, handled but cannot be swallowed as the runtime will re-throw the exception.

The problem with Thread.Abort isn't that it may trash the executing thread, the problem is it may trash your entire AppDomain as it rips the ground from underneath the executing thread - as I said possibly throwing in the middle of a finally block. This is not a recipe for stability.

The thing that will free up the thread's resources is the termination of the thread and the lack of any live references to that thread object. Thread.Interrupt should be able to bring the thread down as long as someone hasn't purposefully tried to stop it. The problem is that that the operating system doesn't have an API to force a thread to terminate without destabilizing the process so how would .NET achieve this? At least having the thread as a managed resource the damage can be limited to the AppDomain.

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl>

But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in
general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of
TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate a
finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to
call Thread.About

1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation the
thread is being ripped down in)
2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain

Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method
on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.

I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
meter.
I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.

I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons (which
call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
click
Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.

What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and
the
actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
checked
the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It
looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint,
but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the
repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).

I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort() the
very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the
GC for the first time for the app or something)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]


---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
Nov 16 '05 #4
Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some blocking
read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you may be
able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent event
and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel handle, you
can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt if no
shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in
general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate a
finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to call Thread.About

1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation the thread is being ripped down in)
2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain

Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>
I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method
on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.

I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
meter.
I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.

I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons (which
call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
click
Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause & Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.

What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and
the
actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
checked
the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint, but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).

I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort() the
very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the GC for the first time for the app or something)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]



Nov 16 '05 #5
On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 18:52:28 -0500, Doug Thews wrote:
I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.


I have a feeling that this is caused by the exception that is thrown as a
result of Thread.Abort being called.
Nov 16 '05 #6
So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need anything
from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once I do
that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that were
instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service connection,
database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some blocking
read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you may
be
able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent event
and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel handle,
you
can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt if
no
shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why
not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in
> general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of > TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate a
> finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to > call Thread.About
>
> 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation the > thread is being ripped down in)
> 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
>
> Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt
>
> Regards
>
> Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
>
>
> nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl> >
> I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> method
> on
> a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
> afterward, there is no delay.
>
> I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
> meter.
> I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
>
> I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
> running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> (which
> call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
> click
> Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause & > Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.
>
> What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and
> the
> actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
> checked
> the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It > looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the re-paint, > but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again, the > repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
>
> I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
> re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort()
> the
> very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the > GC for the first time for the app or something)?
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
>
>
>
> [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]


Nov 16 '05 #7
I think you're on to something here. I already have a catch mechanism
inside the thread code, but it's almost like the delay is caused by
something external needing to be loaded once the first exception (via the
abort) is hit. After that, the delays go away because whatever 'external'
stuff that needed to be loaded, is now already resident.

For those who asked about Thread.Interrupt(), it's not what I'm looking for.
According to the docs, I should be able to use Thread.Abort() and
immediately follow it with a Thread.Join() to make sure that the thread
stays blocked until it's eliminated. I don't want to keep the thread in a
wait/sleep state, so Interrupt() is not what I'm looking for. There is no
mention of Abort() followed by Join() bringing down an entire AppDomain, so
if you have some other docs to look at, I'd appreciate a link.

Thanks in advance.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"C# Learner" <cs****@learner.here> wrote in message
news:o5***************@csharp.learner...
On Sun, 3 Oct 2004 18:52:28 -0500, Doug Thews wrote:
I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort() method
on
a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time
afterward, there is no delay.


I have a feeling that this is caused by the exception that is thrown as a
result of Thread.Abort being called.

Nov 16 '05 #8
Once you break out of your while loop, then your on your way out of the
thread. So process your Close() method after the while loop breaks or in a
Finally block if your wrapping your while in a Try/Catch. Close down your
resources (i.e. sockets, web services, etc like normal in your close.
Normal GC will handle any managed resources when they loose their last
reference. As to your first question, I would break on event first if
possible, then Interrupt if can't break out for some reason. Only then use
Abort if nothing else works. hth

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:OM**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need anything from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once I do that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that were
instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service connection,
database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some blocking
read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you may
be
able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent event and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel handle,
you
can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt if
no
shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why
not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in > general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent
of
> TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate
a > finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to
> call Thread.About
>
> 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation

the
> thread is being ripped down in)
> 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
>
> Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt
>
> Regards
>
> Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
>
>
>

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl> >
> I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> method
> on
> a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time > afterward, there is no delay.
>
> I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
> meter.
> I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
>
> I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
> running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> (which
> call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
> click
> Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
> Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress
bar. >
> What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and > the
> actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
> checked
> the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without

delay. It
> looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the

re-paint,
> but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again,

the
> repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
>
> I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
> re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort()
> the
> very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to
invoke the
> GC for the first time for the app or something)?
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
>
>
>
> [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]



Nov 16 '05 #9
The objects used in the thread will be GC'd when then are no longer referenced by any active code and the GC gets around to running. Its a good idead to use try ... finally to clean up your non-memory resources in a timely fashion (without having to wait for the GC and finalization) such as closing FileStreams, SqlConnections, etc.

However, I have to disagree on one point. I would advise not to call Thread.Abort in any circumstances unless you are bringing down the AppDomain or terminating the application. If you do you may hose your running AppDomain and that is really not a good idea if you intend to carry on running. If the thread won't stop, log the fact so you can investigate later (as it probably means you have a bug somewhere) and leave it as a zombie until your application exits.

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<ug**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

Once you break out of your while loop, then your on your way out of the
thread. So process your Close() method after the while loop breaks or in a
Finally block if your wrapping your while in a Try/Catch. Close down your
resources (i.e. sockets, web services, etc like normal in your close.
Normal GC will handle any managed resources when they loose their last
reference. As to your first question, I would break on event first if
possible, then Interrupt if can't break out for some reason. Only then use
Abort if nothing else works. hth

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:OM**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need anything from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once I do that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that were
instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service connection,
database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some blocking
read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you may
be
able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent event and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel handle,
you
can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt if
no
shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently, why
not
call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
tact,
and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in > general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent
of
> TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may terminate
a > finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is is OK to
> call Thread.About
>
> 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what situation

the
> thread is being ripped down in)
> 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
>
> Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling Thread.Interrupt
>
> Regards
>
> Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
>
>
>

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl> >
> I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> method
> on
> a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time > afterward, there is no delay.
>
> I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the progress
> meter.
> I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
>
> I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread is
> running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> (which
> call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time I
> click
> Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
> Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress
bar. >
> What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and > the
> actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
> checked
> the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without

delay. It
> looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the

re-paint,
> but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel again,

the
> repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
>
> I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause the
> re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling Abort()
> the
> very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to
invoke the
> GC for the first time for the app or something)?
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
>
>
> ---
> Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
>
>
>
> [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]


---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
Nov 16 '05 #10
Great, thanks for the info. Do you have a ptr to the docs that show calling
Abort() will bring down the AppDomain or cause "unstable" results? I can't
find any MS docs on this particular topic.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
The objects used in the thread will be GC'd when then are no longer
referenced by any active code and the GC gets around to running. Its a
good idead to use try ... finally to clean up your non-memory resources in
a timely fashion (without having to wait for the GC and finalization) such
as closing FileStreams, SqlConnections, etc.

However, I have to disagree on one point. I would advise not to call
Thread.Abort in any circumstances unless you are bringing down the
AppDomain or terminating the application. If you do you may hose your
running AppDomain and that is really not a good idea if you intend to
carry on running. If the thread won't stop, log the fact so you can
investigate later (as it probably means you have a bug somewhere) and
leave it as a zombie until your application exits.

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<ug**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

Once you break out of your while loop, then your on your way out of the
thread. So process your Close() method after the while loop breaks or in a
Finally block if your wrapping your while in a Try/Catch. Close down your
resources (i.e. sockets, web services, etc like normal in your close.
Normal GC will handle any managed resources when they loose their last
reference. As to your first question, I would break on event first if
possible, then Interrupt if can't break out for some reason. Only then use
Abort if nothing else works. hth

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:OM**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need

anything
from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once I

do
that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that were
instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service
connection,
database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some
blocking
read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you
may
be
able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent event and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel
handle,
you
can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt
if
no
shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently,
> why
> not
> call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
> tact,
> and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
> "Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message> news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> > Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay, but in> > general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET equivelent of
> > TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may
> > terminate a> > finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is
> > is OK to
> > call Thread.About
> >
> > 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what
> > situation
the
> > thread is being ripped down in)
> > 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
> >
> > Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling
> > Thread.Interrupt
> >
> > Regards
> >
> > Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> > http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
> >
> >
> >
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>> >
> > I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> > method
> > on
> > a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every time> > afterward, there is no delay.
> >
> > I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the
> > progress
> > meter.
> > I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
> >
> > I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread
> > is
> > running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> > (which
> > call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first time
> > I
> > click
> > Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the Pause &
> > Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress bar.> >
> > What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button click and> > the
> > actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons. I
> > checked
> > the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without delay. It
> > looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the
re-paint,
> > but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel
> > again,
the
> > repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
> >
> > I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause
> > the
> > re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling
> > Abort()
> > the
> > very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to invoke the
> > GC for the first time for the app or something)?
> >
> > --
> > Doug Thews
> > Director, Customer Solutions
> > D&D Consulting Services
> > ----------------
> > Visit my Tech Blog at:
> > http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
> >
> >
> >
> >
> >
> > ---
> > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> > Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
> >
> >
> >
> > [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
>
>


---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]

Nov 16 '05 #11
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<##**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl>

Great, thanks for the info. Do you have a ptr to the docs that show calling
Abort() will bring down the AppDomain or cause "unstable" results? I can't
find any MS docs on this particular topic.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
Chris Brumme blogged about it a while back http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9 Regards Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

Nov 16 '05 #12
Read Chris Brumme's (one of the CLR architects) Blog for some of his
thoughts:
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9

also something related from the same author:
http://blogs.msdn.com/cbrumme/archiv.../23/51482.aspx

Willy.

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:%2******************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Great, thanks for the info. Do you have a ptr to the docs that show
calling Abort() will bring down the AppDomain or cause "unstable" results?
I can't find any MS docs on this particular topic.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
The objects used in the thread will be GC'd when then are no longer
referenced by any active code and the GC gets around to running. Its a
good idead to use try ... finally to clean up your non-memory resources
in a timely fashion (without having to wait for the GC and finalization)
such as closing FileStreams, SqlConnections, etc.

However, I have to disagree on one point. I would advise not to call
Thread.Abort in any circumstances unless you are bringing down the
AppDomain or terminating the application. If you do you may hose your
running AppDomain and that is really not a good idea if you intend to
carry on running. If the thread won't stop, log the fact so you can
investigate later (as it probably means you have a bug somewhere) and
leave it as a zombie until your application exits.

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<ug**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

Once you break out of your while loop, then your on your way out of the
thread. So process your Close() method after the while loop breaks or in
a
Finally block if your wrapping your while in a Try/Catch. Close down your
resources (i.e. sockets, web services, etc like normal in your close.
Normal GC will handle any managed resources when they loose their last
reference. As to your first question, I would break on event first if
possible, then Interrupt if can't break out for some reason. Only then
use
Abort if nothing else works. hth

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:OM**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need

anything
> from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once
> I

do
> that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that were
> instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service
> connection,
> database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
> "William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> > Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some
> > blocking
> > read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you
> > may
> > be
> > able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent

event
> > and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel
> > handle,
> > you
> > can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
> > shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt
> > if
> > no
> > shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.
> >
> > --
> > William Stacey, MVP
> >
> > "Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
> > news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> >> But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently,
> >> why
> >> not
> >> call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
> >> tact,
> >> and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Doug Thews
> >> Director, Customer Solutions
> >> D&D Consulting Services
> >> ----------------
> >> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> >> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in

message
> >> news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> > Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay,
> >> > but

in
> >> > general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET

equivelent
> > of
> >> > TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may
> >> > terminate

a
> >> > finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is
> >> > is

OK
> > to
> >> > call Thread.About
> >> >
> >> > 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what
> >> > situation
> > the
> >> > thread is being ripped down in)
> >> > 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
> >> >
> >> > Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling
> >> > Thread.Interrupt
> >> >
> >> > Regards
> >> >
> >> > Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> >> > http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>
> >> >
> >> > I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> >> > method
> >> > on
> >> > a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it. Every

time
> >> > afterward, there is no delay.
> >> >
> >> > I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the
> >> > progress
> >> > meter.
> >> > I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
> >> >
> >> > I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread
> >> > is
> >> > running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> >> > (which
> >> > call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first
> >> > time I
> >> > click
> >> > Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the

Pause
> > &
> >> > Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress

bar.
> >> >
> >> > What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button
> >> > click

and
> >> > the
> >> > actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons.
> >> > I
> >> > checked
> >> > the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without

delay.
> > It
> >> > looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the
> > re-paint,
> >> > but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel
> >> > again,
> > the
> >> > repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
> >> >
> >> > I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause
> >> > the
> >> > re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling
> >> > Abort()
> >> > the
> >> > very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to

invoke
> > the
> >> > GC for the first time for the app or something)?
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Doug Thews
> >> > Director, Customer Solutions
> >> > D&D Consulting Services
> >> > ----------------
> >> > Visit my Tech Blog at:
> >> > http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > ---
> >> > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> >> > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> >> > Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>

---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]


Nov 16 '05 #13
Thanks a lot guys for the doc ptrs. The newsgroup one expired, but I'll
check over on the blogs mentioned. I would've thought that this effect
would've been documented in somewhere in the Thread class documentation.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:uY**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<##**************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl>

Great, thanks for the info. Do you have a ptr to the docs that show
calling
Abort() will bring down the AppDomain or cause "unstable" results? I can't
find any MS docs on this particular topic.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
Chris Brumme blogged about it a while back
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9
Regards Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

Nov 16 '05 #14
Maybe I'm being naive about this, but if Abort() actually destroys the
AppDomain, then why does my Main() code (the main thread that spun the
worker thread) still seem to work after the Abort()? The way I understand
it, the worker thread runs under the same AppDomain as the thread that spun
it, correct?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Willy Denoyette [MVP]" <wi*************@pandora.be> wrote in message
news:ef**************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Read Chris Brumme's (one of the CLR architects) Blog for some of his
thoughts:
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9

also something related from the same author:
http://blogs.msdn.com/cbrumme/archiv.../23/51482.aspx

Willy.

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:%2******************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
Great, thanks for the info. Do you have a ptr to the docs that show
calling Abort() will bring down the AppDomain or cause "unstable"
results? I can't find any MS docs on this particular topic.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP15.phx.gbl...
The objects used in the thread will be GC'd when then are no longer
referenced by any active code and the GC gets around to running. Its a
good idead to use try ... finally to clean up your non-memory resources
in a timely fashion (without having to wait for the GC and finalization)
such as closing FileStreams, SqlConnections, etc.

However, I have to disagree on one point. I would advise not to call
Thread.Abort in any circumstances unless you are bringing down the
AppDomain or terminating the application. If you do you may hose your
running AppDomain and that is really not a good idea if you intend to
carry on running. If the thread won't stop, log the fact so you can
investigate later (as it probably means you have a bug somewhere) and
leave it as a zombie until your application exits.

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<ug**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

Once you break out of your while loop, then your on your way out of the
thread. So process your Close() method after the while loop breaks or in
a
Finally block if your wrapping your while in a Try/Catch. Close down
your
resources (i.e. sockets, web services, etc like normal in your close.
Normal GC will handle any managed resources when they loose their last
reference. As to your first question, I would break on event first if
possible, then Interrupt if can't break out for some reason. Only then
use
Abort if nothing else works. hth

--
William Stacey, MVP

"Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
news:OM**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> So, if I have a self-sustained business operation that doesn't need
anything
> from the thread that started it, I should use Thread.Interrupt()? Once
> I
do
> that, what else do I need to do to make sure that the objects that
> were
> instantiated within the thread are GC'ed (maybe a web service
> connection,
> database connection, or some other high-overhead resource)?
>
> --
> Doug Thews
> Director, Customer Solutions
> D&D Consulting Services
> ----------------
> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
>
>
>
> "William Stacey [MVP]" <st***********@mvps.org> wrote in message
> news:%2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
> > Normally, in your worker threads you block once waiting on some
> > blocking
> > read or other, process the read/write and loop. In these cases, you
> > may
> > be
> > able to useWaitHandle.WaitAny and wait on a cancel ManualResetEvent
event
> > and your other wait object. That way, if you signal your cancel
> > handle,
> > you
> > can break out clean without needing Abort or Interrupt. So in your
> > shutdown, you can do that first, test for exit, then do an Interrupt
> > if
> > no
> > shutdown. If still no joy, do the abort as last resort.
> >
> > --
> > William Stacey, MVP
> >
> > "Doug Thews" <do*******@removeme.ddconsult.com> wrote in message
> > news:eu**************@TK2MSFTNGP11.phx.gbl...
> >> But if you know you're going to get rid of the thread permanently,
> >> why
> >> not
> >> call Thread.Abort()? Thread.Interrupt() leaves all the resources in
> >> tact,
> >> and I want to force the GC to collect those resources.
> >>
> >> --
> >> Doug Thews
> >> Director, Customer Solutions
> >> D&D Consulting Services
> >> ----------------
> >> Visit my Tech Blog at:
> >> http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
> >>
> >>
> >>
> >> "Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in
message
> >> news:Oc*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl...
> >> > Off the top of my head I'm not sure what would cause the delay,
> >> > but
in
> >> > general should should not call thread.Abort. It is the .NET
equivelent
> > of
> >> > TerminateThread and has similar issues, for example it may
> >> > terminate
a
> >> > finally block prematurely. There are only two situations where is
> >> > is
OK
> > to
> >> > call Thread.About
> >> >
> >> > 1) when you call it on the current thread (so you know what
> >> > situation
> > the
> >> > thread is being ripped down in)
> >> > 2) when you are pulling down the whole AppDomain
> >> >
> >> > Prefer a cooperative mechanism with flags or calling
> >> > Thread.Interrupt
> >> >
> >> > Regards
> >> >
> >> > Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
> >> > http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<#u*************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>
> >> >
> >> > I ran into an interesting re-pain delay after calling the Abort()
> >> > method
> >> > on
> >> > a thread, but it only happens the very first time I call it.
> >> > Every
time
> >> > afterward, there is no delay.
> >> >
> >> > I've got a delegate inside the UI that I call to update the
> >> > progress
> >> > meter.
> >> > I use the Suspend() and Abort() methods based on button events.
> >> >
> >> > I can watch the progress meter increase just fine when the thread
> >> > is
> >> > running. When I select Start, I enable the Cancel & Pause buttons
> >> > (which
> >> > call Abort() or Suspend()). The problem happens the very first
> >> > time I
> >> > click
> >> > Cancel (causing Abort() to be called). I change the status of the
Pause
> > &
> >> > Cancel buttons back to disabled and I manually clear the progress
bar.
> >> >
> >> > What I end up seeing is a 3-4 second delay between the button
> >> > click
and
> >> > the
> >> > actual clearing of the progress bar and disabling of the buttons.
> >> > I
> >> > checked
> >> > the button_click event handler, and it runs through fine without
delay.
> > It
> >> > looks as if there's some kind of delay between the event and the
> > re-paint,
> >> > but it only happens the very first time. If I Start and Cancel
> >> > again,
> > the
> >> > repaint happens immediately (as I would expect).
> >> >
> >> > I don't have any timers or anything else running that would cause
> >> > the
> >> > re-paint to be intercepted. Is there something about calling
> >> > Abort()
> >> > the
> >> > very first time that would delay a re-paint (maybe by having to
invoke
> > the
> >> > GC for the first time for the app or something)?
> >> >
> >> > --
> >> > Doug Thews
> >> > Director, Customer Solutions
> >> > D&D Consulting Services
> >> > ----------------
> >> > Visit my Tech Blog at:
> >> > http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > ---
> >> > Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
> >> > Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
> >> > Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> > [microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]
> >>
> >>
> >
>
>
---
Incoming mail is certified Virus Free.
Checked by AVG anti-virus system (http://www.grisoft.com).
Version: 6.0.771 / Virus Database: 518 - Release Date: 28/09/2004

[microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp]



Nov 16 '05 #15
It doesn't destroy the AppDomain, it *may* trash the AppDomain depending on what the code was doing when the ThreadAbortException was thrown. Its a bit like updating the UI from a worker thread - its seems to work except when your boss is watching you demo the system ;-)

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<Ob*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>

Maybe I'm being naive about this, but if Abort() actually destroys the
AppDomain, then why does my Main() code (the main thread that spun the
worker thread) still seem to work after the Abort()? The way I understand
it, the worker thread runs under the same AppDomain as the thread that spun
it, correct?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/
Nov 16 '05 #16
I got it. Since everything is compartmentalized (just doing some offline
work that I don't need done in the foreground), it doesn't seem like Abort()
will harm me any. I can see where Abort() could harm you if you're updating
a UI control directly from within the thread, but that's not what this guy
does (not should a worker thread ever update a UI control directly - that's
what Delegates are for).

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:e2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
It doesn't destroy the AppDomain, it *may* trash the AppDomain depending
on what the code was doing when the ThreadAbortException was thrown. Its a
bit like updating the UI from a worker thread - its seems to work except
when your boss is watching you demo the system ;-)

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<Ob*************@tk2msftngp13.phx.gbl>

Maybe I'm being naive about this, but if Abort() actually destroys the
AppDomain, then why does my Main() code (the main thread that spun the
worker thread) still seem to work after the Abort()? The way I understand
it, the worker thread runs under the same AppDomain as the thread that
spun
it, correct?

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

Nov 16 '05 #17
Willy Denoyette [MVP] <wi*************@pandora.be> wrote:
Read Chris Brumme's (one of the CLR architects) Blog for some of his
thoughts:
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9


Excellent - it's good to see I'm not alone in thinking that calling
Thread.Abort is, in general terms, a bad idea. I usually prefer to
shutdown a whole process if things have gone that screwy :)

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too
Nov 16 '05 #18
Fortunately v2.0 solves a number of (scary) issues like leaking handles
(handles are/can be wrapped by a SafeHandle class) and aborting finally
blocks.
But for now you are right, asynchronous (Thread) Aborts are evil. You better
shutdown the process or Appdomain or change your design so you can use
synchronous Aborts.

Willy.

"Jon Skeet [C# MVP]" <sk***@pobox.com> wrote in message
news:MP************************@msnews.microsoft.c om...
Willy Denoyette [MVP] <wi*************@pandora.be> wrote:
Read Chris Brumme's (one of the CLR architects) Blog for some of his
thoughts:
http://blogs.gotdotnet.com/cbrumme/P...f-097efb25d1a9


Excellent - it's good to see I'm not alone in thinking that calling
Thread.Abort is, in general terms, a bad idea. I usually prefer to
shutdown a whole process if things have gone that screwy :)

--
Jon Skeet - <sk***@pobox.com>
http://www.pobox.com/~skeet
If replying to the group, please do not mail me too

Nov 16 '05 #19
Hold on - I was using UI updating from the wrong thread as illustrative of things that appear to work alot of the time but can have really bad consequences. Please don't call Thread.Abort, you have absolutely no idea of what state things will be left in afterwards. What if your code is performing a finally block, wgar if your thread has ownership of a lock, what if your thread we in the middle of updating static state that it now leaves inconsistent. There are numerous things that can go very wrong so just accept that if you get to the point of having to issue an Abort to bring the thread down:

1) The thread may be performing unmanaged work and so the Abort still won't bring the thread down
2) You probably have a bug in your code which needs fixing.

Just log the fact that the thread won't terminate (so you can investigate later), store a reference to the frozen thread somewhere and just create a new thread to perform more work if you need to. When you come to process shutdown check to see if the thread has now finished and if it hasn't then Abort the thread.

Btw: delegates on their own are not a solution for updating the UI from a background thread, you still have to make the delegate invocation run on the UI thread via Control.BeginInvoke

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog

nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<eD**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

I got it. Since everything is compartmentalized (just doing some offline
work that I don't need done in the foreground), it doesn't seem like Abort()
will harm me any. I can see where Abort() could harm you if you're updating
a UI control directly from within the thread, but that's not what this guy
does (not should a worker thread ever update a UI control directly - that's
what Delegates are for).

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:e2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
It doesn't destroy the AppDomain, it *may* trash the AppDomain depending
on what the code was doing when the ThreadAbortException was thrown. Its a
bit like updating the UI from a worker thread - its seems to work except
when your boss is watching you demo the system ;-)


Nov 16 '05 #20
OK, I understand. I was just doing some sample code that allowed me to
cancel a sample thread. The thread merely spun around and counted the
number of files in a directory - no reading or writing. No accessing static
vars, mutexes or ReaderWriterLocks. None of that stuff.

But, thanks for the warning. I'm wondering why there isn't as much of a red
flag from the MS camp as I've seen here. You'd think based on the articles
& books I've reviewed so far, that Thread.Abort() is pretty harmless.

BTW .. I'm pretty sure the delay comes from the fact that the exception
handler stuff is being loaded for the first time. Once loaded, further
AbortExceptions generated do not cause the delay. Pure speculation on my
point, but it's the only rational explanation.

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:eW*************@TK2MSFTNGP09.phx.gbl...
Hold on - I was using UI updating from the wrong thread as illustrative of
things that appear to work alot of the time but can have really bad
consequences. Please don't call Thread.Abort, you have absolutely no idea
of what state things will be left in afterwards. What if your code is
performing a finally block, wgar if your thread has ownership of a lock,
what if your thread we in the middle of updating static state that it now
leaves inconsistent. There are numerous things that can go very wrong so
just accept that if you get to the point of having to issue an Abort to
bring the thread down:

1) The thread may be performing unmanaged work and so the Abort still
won't bring the thread down
2) You probably have a bug in your code which needs fixing.

Just log the fact that the thread won't terminate (so you can investigate
later), store a reference to the frozen thread somewhere and just create a
new thread to perform more work if you need to. When you come to process
shutdown check to see if the thread has now finished and if it hasn't then
Abort the thread.

Btw: delegates on their own are not a solution for updating the UI from a
background thread, you still have to make the delegate invocation run on
the UI thread via Control.BeginInvoke

Regards

Richard Blewett - DevelopMentor
http://staff.develop.com/richardb/weblog
nntp://news.microsoft.com/microsoft.public.dotnet.languages.csharp/<eD**************@TK2MSFTNGP10.phx.gbl>

I got it. Since everything is compartmentalized (just doing some offline
work that I don't need done in the foreground), it doesn't seem like
Abort()
will harm me any. I can see where Abort() could harm you if you're
updating
a UI control directly from within the thread, but that's not what this guy
does (not should a worker thread ever update a UI control directly -
that's
what Delegates are for).

--
Doug Thews
Director, Customer Solutions
D&D Consulting Services
----------------
Visit my Tech Blog at:
http://www.ddconsult.com/blogs/illuminati/

"Richard Blewett [DevelopMentor]" <ri******@develop.com> wrote in message
news:e2****************@TK2MSFTNGP14.phx.gbl...
It doesn't destroy the AppDomain, it *may* trash the AppDomain depending
on what the code was doing when the ThreadAbortException was thrown. Its
a
bit like updating the UI from a worker thread - its seems to work except
when your boss is watching you demo the system ;-)

Nov 16 '05 #21

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