31 January 2012

When the destroy method gets called in the Servlet?

It is an implementation-depended, nobody knows!
SRV.2.3.4
End of Service
The servlet container is not required to keep a servlet loaded for any particular
period of time. A servlet instance may be kept active in a servlet container for a
period of milliseconds, for the lifetime of the servlet container (which could be a
number of days, months, or years), or any amount of time in between.
When the servlet container determines that a servlet should be removed from
service, it calls the destroy method of the Servlet interface to allow the servlet to
release any resources it is using and save any persistent state. For example, the
container may do this when it wants to conserve memory resources, or when it is
being shut down.
Before the servlet container calls the destroy method, it must allow any
threads that are currently running in the service method of the servlet to complete
execution, or exceed a server-defined time limit.
Once the destroy method is called on a servlet instance, the container may
not route other requests to that instance of the servlet. If the container needs to
enable the servlet again, it must do so with a new instance of the servlet’s class.
After the destroy method completes, the servlet container must release the
servlet instance so that it is eligible for garbage collection.


Source Servelt-2.4 specs document

No comments: