kill -3 to get java thread dump

Question

I am using kill -3 command to see the JVM's thread dump in unix. But where can I find the output of this kill command? I am lost!!

Answer 1

Steps that you should follow if you want the thread dump of your StandAlone Java Process

Step 1: Get the Process ID for the shell script calling the java program

linux$ ps -aef | grep "runABCD"

user1  **8535**  4369   0   Mar 25 ?           0:00 /bin/csh /home/user1/runABCD.sh

user1 17796 17372   0 08:15:41 pts/49      0:00 grep runABCD

Step 2: Get the Process ID for the Child which was Invoked by the runABCD. Use the above PID to get the childs.

linux$ ps -aef | grep **8535**

user1  **8536**  8535   0   Mar 25 ?         126:38 /apps/java/jdk/sun4/SunOS5/1.6.0_16/bin/java -cp /home/user1/XYZServer

user1  8535  4369   0   Mar 25 ?           0:00 /bin/csh /home/user1/runABCD.sh

user1 17977 17372   0 08:15:49 pts/49      0:00 grep 8535

Step 3: Get the JSTACK for the particular process. Get the Process id of your XYSServer process. i.e. 8536

linux$ jstack **8536** > threadDump.log

Answer 2

You could alternatively use jstack (Included with JDK) to take a thread dump and write the output wherever you want. Is that not available in a unix environment?

jstack PID > outfile

Answer 3

The thread dump is written to the system out of the VM on which you executed the kill -3. If you are redirecting the console output of the JVM to a file, the thread dump will be in that file. If the JVM is running in an open console, then the thread dump will be displayed in its console.