There's a way of asking a Java Runtime to output a "thread dump" for all currently running threads (both system threads and application threads). For each thread, the thread dump will include a stack trace, and information on any locks currently held by the thread. Thread dumps don't cause your application to halt. They're like a snapshot: your application pauses execution, the running threads are queried, the information is output, and then your application simply resumes execution.

To cause a thread dump from the console that launched the application:

• on Windows, press Control + Break
• on Unix, press Control + Backslash

On Unix, you can also generate a thread dump from any console using these commands:

• find the application's process id, using ps x | grep java
• kill -3 <java-process-id>

Note that this doesn't actually kill the process.

The precise syntax and content of a thread dump is dependent on the Java Runtime.

Stack trace as String

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