Destructors

Although java.lang.Object declares and implements a method finalize() which is meant to be called by the garbage collector to allow the object to gain control one last time to free resources and finish sanely, I found out in a rather painful way that finalize() will only be called by the garbage collector and not when exiting the program. This means that all the objects that have been in use shortly before shutdown of the virtual machine do not get the chance to close sanely.

java.lang.System defines a static method called runFinalizersOnExit(boolean) which switches on the desired behaviour but this method is marked deprecated since JDK 1.4.1 (might be even earlier).

The only possible way to have the virtual machine automatically call finalize() on objects before shutting down seems to be java.lang.System.runFinalization() which will execute the finalize() method “of any objects pending finalization”.

This smells like a rip-off! I bet that means that you will have to unset all variables global or local to the main method in order to force the virtual machine to include those object which have still been in use just before issuing the shutdown.

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