How-to interrupt a hanging methodcall

Question

I wonder if someone from you now, how
one can interrupt a method while it is hanging for some
reason.
This is the problemdescription is as following:
If the method has longer then 10 seconds, it needs to be interrupted.
Any ideas?
Thanx, nils

Answer 1

Thanx for your code. But the problem is extended:
I should get a value from the "sort-of" server. So I did the following:
public class Main
     public static void main(String[] args)
          Client c = new Client();
          Server s = new Server();
          ControlThread ct = new ControlThread(s,c, 100);
          ct.run();
* This class gets a server and a client. The
* client needs a value that is returned by the server.
* But the server can hang while evaluating that value, so
* the ControlThread has a timeout thread that bypasses that
* call if the timeout occures.
* @author n_birkeland
class ControlThread{
      * @param Server this is the server that has a method that can hang
      * @param Client this client needs a value from the server
      * @param timeout this is the time the control waits until it
      * bypasses the call to the client
     ControlThread(Server s, Client c, int timeout){
          this.s = s;
          this.c = c;
          this.timeout = timeout;
     public void run(){
          try{
               Thread invoker = new Thread(){
                    public void run(){
                         value = s.get();
                         doneWork();
               Thread timer = new Thread(){
                    public void run(){
                         try{
                              sleep(timeout);
                         }catch(Exception e){;}
                         finally{
                            reachedTimeout();                         
               invoker.start();
               timer.start();
               // wait, until one flag is set to true:
               while( isTimeoutReached!=true && isWorkDone!=true ){
                    // busy waiting...
               System.err.println("exited busy waiting: isTimeoutReached="+isTimeoutReached+" isWorkDone="+isWorkDone);
               if(!isWorkDone){
                    value = -1;
               c.set(value);
               invoker.interrupt();
               timer.interrupt();
          }catch(Exception e){
               System.err.println(""+e);                    
               c.set(-1);
     synchronized void doneWork(){
          isWorkDone = true;
          System.out.println("done work: isTimeoutReached="+isTimeoutReached+" isWorkDone="+isWorkDone);          
     synchronized void reachedTimeout(){
          isTimeoutReached = true;
          System.out.println("reached timeout: isTimeoutReached="+isTimeoutReached+" isWorkDone="+isWorkDone);          
     int value = 0;
     boolean isWorkDone = false;
     boolean isTimeoutReached = false;
     final int timeout;
     final Server s;
     final Client c;
class Server{
     final int HANG_TIME = 300;
     int get(){
          try{
               System.out.println("server is going to sleep...");
               Thread.sleep(HANG_TIME);
          }catch(Exception e){;}     
          return 1987234; // some fancy value
class Client{
     void set(int value){
          System.out.println("Got value from server: "+value);
}