RFR [9] 8056152 API to create Threads that do not inherit InheritableThreadLocals

[Roger Riggs]

Hi Chris,

Supporting the use case in Thread is a good addition.

Adding an argument to the most flexible constructor of Thread bulks up
an already heavy weight constructor.  Look at the cases being replaced,
none of them use all of the arguments.  The stackSize, for example, is 
rarely
used and is nearly useless due to its implementation dependencies.

Would you consider using a static Factory method (aptly named) instead
of a constructor?

Roger


On 12/08/2015 09:15 AM, Chris Hegarty wrote:
> Many threads created by the platform are short lived and perform some
> simple async operation on behalf of the platform. These threads typically
> use/extend sun.misc.ManagedLocalsThread. This is a convenient internal
> API that can be used to create threads that do not wish to inherit initial
> values from inheritable thread-local variables.
>
> I'd like to propose an additional java.lang.Thread constructor that exposes
> the ability to explicitly "opt out" of inheriting these initial values ( from
> inheritable thread-local variables ). This seems like useful general
> functionality, given the amount of usage in the JDK of the internal API.
>
> This new public API can then be used to replace usages of the internal
> sun.misc.ManagedLocalsThread. As part of this bug I've only retrofitted
> the usage in the sources of the base module. Other modules can be done
> as a follow up.
>
> Webrev:
>    http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~chegar/8056152/00/webrev/
>
> -Chris.
>
> [1] https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8056152