How to implement a forever running program?

Question

i made a program that does some file i/o in an infinite loop (while(!stop)). if all work is one it waits until "jnotify" notifies that a new folder was created and it starts working again. this program has a jmx interface to start and stop this loop. all functionality is done only the main() is missing now.
how to implement a forever running main, only waiting for (user)-methods called to execute them - just like any gui-application? i guess in a swing-app there is no while(!closed)-loop? (in meantime i noticed - such loops consum 100% cpu ;-)). So is there a best practice or a "pattern" for such common apps?
thx in advance

Answer 1

817113 wrote:
in my case the "inner-jnotify-file-io"-thread it self is stoppable (while(!stop) listen for jnotify events). but if this thread is stopped the hosting main-method must keep runnning - waiting until someone calls start() via jmx or shutdown(). Strictly speaking the main methods only task is to host the jmx interface (, the logger..) and to run until someone calls shutdown (like a swing gui that waits until someone closes the window).
How to implement such behavior? Do i need another thread within main, waiting for such an event and message it to the hosting main method? Main already runs in its own thread, if your "inner-jnotify-file-io"-thread has to be able to be stopped (instead of just paused), then you need another thread that stays alive.
You could make the main thread wait() on something that gets notified() when close is called.
(i could hardly believ that there is no "pattern" or example fo a main()-method/app that is running until someone calls a "close"-methode)No, you're just not understanding the big picture here. It's quite easy to make an app like that. And you've been given ways and information on how to do it.