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public final class Foo implements Runnable {
  @Override public void run() {
    // ...
  }

  public static void main(String[] args) {
    Foo foo = new Foo();
    new Thread(foo).start();
  }
}

Exceptions

THI00-J-EX0: The run() method may be directly invoked during unit testing. Note that this method cannot be used to test a class for multithreaded use.

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public void sampleRunTest() {

  Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable() {
      @Override public void run() {
        // ...
      }
    });
  
  ((Runnable) thread).run();  // THI00-J-EX0: Does not start a new thread

}

Casting a thread to Runnable before calling the run() method documents that the explicit call to Thread.run() is intentional. Adding an explanatory comment alongside the invocation is highly recommended.

THI00-J-EX1: Runtime system code involved in starting new threads is permitted to invoke a Thread object's run() method directly; this is an obvious necessity for a working Java runtime system. Note that the likelihood that this exception applies to user-written code is vanishingly small.

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Failure to start threads correctly can cause unexpected behavior.

Automated Detection

Automated detection of direct invocations of Thread.run() methods is straightforward. Sound automated determination of which specific invocations are permitted may be infeasible. Heuristic approaches may be useful.

Related Guidelines

Android Implementation Details

Android provides a couple of solutions for threading. The Android Developers Blog's article "Painless Threading" discusses those solutions.

Bibliography

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