Naming threads and thread-pools of ExecutorService

Let’s say I have an application that utilizes the Executor framework as such

Executors.newSingleThreadExecutor().submit(new Runnable(){
    @Override
    public void run(){
        // do stuff
    }
}

When I run this application in the debugger, a thread is created with the following (default) name: Thread[pool-1-thread-1]. As you can see, this isn’t terribly useful and as far as I can tell, the Executor framework does not provide an easy way to name the created threads or thread-pools.

So, how does one go about providing names for the threads/thread-pools? For instance, Thread[FooPool-FooThread].

Answer

You could supply a ThreadFactory to newSingleThreadScheduledExecutor(ThreadFactory threadFactory). The factory will be responsibe for creating threads, and will be able to name them.

To quote the Javadoc:

Creating new threads

New threads are created using a ThreadFactory. If not otherwise specified, a Executors.defaultThreadFactory() is used, that creates threads to all be in the same ThreadGroup and with the same NORM_PRIORITY priority and non-daemon status. By supplying a different ThreadFactory, you can alter the thread’s name, thread group, priority, daemon status, etc. If a ThreadFactory fails to create a thread when asked by returning null from newThread, the executor will continue, but might not be able to execute any tasks