How to handle :java.util.concurrent.TimeoutExcepti

Question

We're seeing a number of TimeoutExceptions in GcWatcher.finalize, BinderProxy.finalize, and PlainSocketImpl.finalize. 90+% of them happen on Android 4.3. We're getting reports of this from Crittercism from users out in the field.

The error is a variation of: "com.android.internal.BinderInternal$GcWatcher.finalize() timed out after 10 seconds"

java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: android.os.BinderProxy.finalize() timed out after 10 seconds
at android.os.BinderProxy.destroy(Native Method)
at android.os.BinderProxy.finalize(Binder.java:459)
at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize(Daemons.java:187)
at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run(Daemons.java:170)
at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:841)

So far we haven't had any luck reproducing the problem in house or figuring out what might have caused it.

Any ideas what can cause this? Any idea how to debug this and find out which part of the app causes this? Anything that sheds light on the issue helps.

More Stacktraces:

1   android.os.BinderProxy.destroy  
2   android.os.BinderProxy.finalize Binder.java, line 482
3   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize    Daemons.java, line 187
4   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run   Daemons.java, line 170
5   java.lang.Thread.run    Thread.java, line 841  

2

1   java.lang.Object.wait   
2   java.lang.Object.wait   Object.java, line 401
3   java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove ReferenceQueue.java, line 102
4   java.lang.ref.ReferenceQueue.remove ReferenceQueue.java, line 73
5   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run   Daemons.java, line 170
6   java.lang.Thread.run

3

1   java.util.HashMap.newKeyIterator    HashMap.java, line 907
2   java.util.HashMap$KeySet.iterator   HashMap.java, line 913
3   java.util.HashSet.iterator  HashSet.java, line 161
4   java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.interruptIdleWorkers    ThreadPoolExecutor.java, line 755
5   java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.interruptIdleWorkers    ThreadPoolExecutor.java, line 778
6   java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.shutdown    ThreadPoolExecutor.java, line 1357
7   java.util.concurrent.ThreadPoolExecutor.finalize    ThreadPoolExecutor.java, line 1443
8   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize    Daemons.java, line 187
9   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run   Daemons.java, line 170
10  java.lang.Thread.run

4

1   com.android.internal.os.BinderInternal$GcWatcher.finalize   BinderInternal.java, line 47
2   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize    Daemons.java, line 187
3   java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run   Daemons.java, line 170
4   java.lang.Thread.run

Answer 1

try {
    Class<?> c = Class.forName("java.lang.Daemons");
    Field maxField = c.getDeclaredField("MAX_FINALIZE_NANOS");
    maxField.setAccessible(true);
    maxField.set(null, Long.MAX_VALUE);
} catch (ClassNotFoundException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (NoSuchFieldException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
} catch (IllegalAccessException e) {
    e.printStackTrace();
}

Answer 2

Broadcast Receivers timeout after 10 seconds. Possibly your doing an asynchronous call (wrong) from a broadcast receiver and 4.3 actually detects it.

Answer 3

For classes that you create (ie. are not part of the Android) its possible to avoid the crash completely.

Any class that implements finalize() has some unavoidable probability of crashing as explained by @oba. So instead of using finalizers to perform cleanup, use a PhantomReferenceQueue.

For an example check out the implementation in React Native: https://github.com/facebook/react-native/blob/master/ReactAndroid/src/main/java/com/facebook/jni/DestructorThread.java

Answer 4

It seems like a Android Runtime bug. There seems to be finalizer that runs in its separate thread and calls finalize() method on objects if they are not in the current frame of the stacktrace. For example following code(created to verify this issue) ended with the crash.

Let's have some cursor that do something in finalize method(e.g. SqlCipher ones, do close() which locks to the database that is currently in use)

private static class MyCur extends MatrixCursor {


    public MyCur(String[] columnNames) {
        super(columnNames);
    }

    @Override
    protected void finalize() {
        super.finalize();

        try {
            for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
                Thread.sleep(30);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

And we do some long running stuff having opened cursor:

for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) {
        new Thread(new Runnable() {
            @Override
            public void run() {
                MyCur cur = null;
                try {
                    cur = new MyCur(new String[]{});
                    longRun();
                } finally {
                    cur.close();
                }
            }

            private void longRun() {
                try {
                    for (int i = 0; i < 1000; i++)
                        Thread.sleep(30);
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }).start();
    }

This causes following error:

FATAL EXCEPTION: FinalizerWatchdogDaemon
                                                                        Process: la.la.land, PID: 29206
                                                                        java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: MyCur.finalize() timed out after 10 seconds
                                                                            at java.lang.Thread.sleep(Native Method)
                                                                            at java.lang.Thread.sleep(Thread.java:371)
                                                                            at java.lang.Thread.sleep(Thread.java:313)
                                                                            at MyCur.finalize(MessageList.java:1791)
                                                                            at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize(Daemons.java:222)
                                                                            at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run(Daemons.java:209)
                                                                            at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:762)

The production variant with SqlCipher is very similiar:

12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): android.content.ContentResolver$CursorWrapperInner.finalize() timed out after 10 seconds
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): java.util.concurrent.TimeoutException: android.content.ContentResolver$CursorWrapperInner.finalize() timed out after 10 seconds
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.lang.Object.wait(Native Method)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.lang.Thread.parkFor$(Thread.java:2128)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at sun.misc.Unsafe.park(Unsafe.java:325)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.LockSupport.park(LockSupport.java:161)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.parkAndCheckInterrupt(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:840)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquireQueued(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:873)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.acquire(AbstractQueuedSynchronizer.java:1197)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock$FairSync.lock(ReentrantLock.java:200)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.util.concurrent.locks.ReentrantLock.lock(ReentrantLock.java:262)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at net.sqlcipher.database.SQLiteDatabase.lock(SourceFile:518)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at net.sqlcipher.database.SQLiteProgram.close(SourceFile:294)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at net.sqlcipher.database.SQLiteQuery.close(SourceFile:136)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at net.sqlcipher.database.SQLiteCursor.close(SourceFile:510)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at android.database.CursorWrapper.close(CursorWrapper.java:50)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at android.database.CursorWrapper.close(CursorWrapper.java:50)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at android.content.ContentResolver$CursorWrapperInner.close(ContentResolver.java:2746)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at android.content.ContentResolver$CursorWrapperInner.finalize(ContentResolver.java:2757)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.doFinalize(Daemons.java:222)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.lang.Daemons$FinalizerDaemon.run(Daemons.java:209)
12-21 15:40:31.668: E/EH(32131): 	at java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:762)

Resume: Close cursors ASAP. At least on Samsung S8 with Android 7 where the issue have been seen.