Return START_STICKY from Service with Thread

Question

I made a Service that uses a Thread when it is started. I want to keep the service running when my application is closed (START_STICKY).

To make the service keep running, I have to return START_STICKY:

@Override
public int onStartCommand(Intent intent, int flags, int startId) {
     new Thread( new Runnable() {
        @Override
        public void run() {
            while(true) {
              try {
                    Thread.sleep(2000);
                } catch (InterruptedException e) {
                    e.printStackTrace();
                }
            }
        }
    }).start();
    return START_STICKY;
}

How can I return it with my thread?

http://stackoverflow.com/questions/9434179/how-to-keep-a-service-running-in-background-even-after-user-quits-the-app — koutuk, Jan 07 '16 at 12:19
I know that I have to use START_STICKY but how can I return it if I have a thread onStartCommand? — tomss, Jan 07 '16 at 12:36

score 0 · Accepted Answer · answered Jan 07 '16 at 16:49

It seems to be a misunderstanding of the concept of Thread. The thread you've started in onStartCommand() does not "prevent" the method from returning. What happens here is as follows:

onStartCommand() is called on some thread (likely the main one)
Thread.start() returns immediately followed by returning from onStartCommand() with START_STICKY flag.

As a result there are at least two threads running, the one on which onStartCommand() has been invoked, the other one that performs the run() method.

Return START_STICKY from Service with Thread

1 Answers1