I am trying to programmatically restart my Spring Application without having the user to intervene.
Basically, I have a page which allows to switch the mode of the application (actually meaning switching the currently active profile) and as far as I understand I must restart the context.
Currently my code is very simple, it's just for the restarting bit (this is Kotlin by the way):
context.close()
application.setEnvironment(context.environment)
ClassUtils.overrideThreadContextClassLoader(application.javaClass.classLoader)
context = application.run(*argsArray)
However the moment I do context.close()
the JVM exists immediately. I have also tried context.refresh()
but that seems to simply kill Tomcat/Jetty (tried both just in case it was a Tomcat problem) and then nothing happens.
I have also seen Programmatically restart Spring Boot application but nothing seems to work for me from those answers. Furthermore, I looked into Spring Actuator which supposedly has the /restart
endpoint, but that doesn't seem to be there anymore?
Even though Alex's solution works, I don't believe in including 2 additional dependencies (Actuator
and Cloud Context
) just to be able to do one operation. Instead, I have combined his answer and modified my code in order to do what I wanted.
So, first of all, it is crucial that the code is executed using new Thread()
and setDaemon(false);
. I have the following endpoint method that handles the restart:
val restartThread = Thread {
logger.info("Restarting...")
Thread.sleep(1000)
SpringMain.restartToMode(AppMode.valueOf(change.newMode.toUpperCase()))
logger.info("Restarting... Done.")
}
restartThread.isDaemon = false
restartThread.start()
The Thread.sleep(1000)
is not required, but I want my controller to output the view before actually restarting the application.
SpringMain.restartToMode
has the following:
@Synchronized fun restartToMode(mode: AppMode) {
requireNotNull(context)
requireNotNull(application)
// internal logic to potentially produce a new arguments array
// close previous context
context.close()
// and build new one using the new mode
val builder = SpringApplicationBuilder(SpringMain::class.java)
application = builder.application()
context = builder.build().run(*argsArray)
}
Where context
and application
come from the main
method upon starting the application:
val args = ArrayList<String>()
lateinit var context: ConfigurableApplicationContext
lateinit var application: SpringApplication
@Throws(Exception::class)
@JvmStatic fun main(args: Array<String>) {
this.args += args
val builder = SpringApplicationBuilder(SpringMain::class.java)
application = builder.application()
context = builder.build().run(*args)
}
I am not entirely sure if this produces any problems. If there will be, I will update this answer. Hopefully this will be of any help to others.
In case it might help someone, here's a pura Java translation of Crembo's accepted answer.
Controller method:
@GetMapping("/restart")
void restart() {
Thread restartThread = new Thread(() -> {
try {
Thread.sleep(1000);
Main.restart();
} catch (InterruptedException ignored) {
}
});
restartThread.setDaemon(false);
restartThread.start();
}
Main class (significant bits only):
private static String[] args;
private static ConfigurableApplicationContext context;
public static void main(String[] args) {
Main.args = args;
Main.context = SpringApplication.run(Main.class, args);
}
public static void restart() {
// close previous context
context.close();
// and build new one
Main.context = SpringApplication.run(Main.class, args);
}
You can use the RestartEndPoint
(in spring-cloud-context
dependency) to restart the Spring Boot application programmatically:
@Autowired
private RestartEndpoint restartEndpoint;
...
Thread restartThread = new Thread(() -> restartEndpoint.restart());
restartThread.setDaemon(false);
restartThread.start();
It works, even though it will throw an exception to inform you that this may lead to memory leaks:
The web application [xyx] appears to have started a thread named
[Thread-6] but has failed to stop it. This is very likely to create a
memory leak. Stack trace of thread:
The same answer was provided for this other question (worded differently): Call Spring actuator /restart endpoint from Spring boot using a java function
I've solved this issue by using Restarter from Spring Devtools.
Add this to pom.xml:
<dependency>
<groupId>org.springframework.boot</groupId>
<artifactId>spring-boot-devtools</artifactId>
<scope>runtime</scope>
</dependency>
Then use org.springframework.boot.devtools.restart.Restarter
to call this:
Restarter.getInstance().restart();
It works for me. Hope this help.
Below restart method will work.
`@SpringBootApplication
public class Application {
private static ConfigurableApplicationContext context;
public static void main(String[] args) {
context = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args);
}
public static void restart() {
ApplicationArguments args = context.getBean(ApplicationArguments.class);
Thread thread = new Thread(() -> {
context.close();
context = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args.getSourceArgs());
});
thread.setDaemon(false);
thread.start();
}
}`