This Handler class should be static or leaks might occur IncomingHandler

Question

I m developing an Android 2 3 3 application with a service  I have this inside that service to communicate with Main activity   public class UDPListenerService extends Service       private static final String TAG    UDPListenerService         private ThreadGroup myThreads   new ThreadGroup  UDPListenerServiceWorker        private UDPListenerThread myThread                 Handler to communicate from WorkerThread to service              private Handler mServiceHandler          Used to receive messages from the Activity     final Messenger inMessenger   new Messenger new IncomingHandler            Use to send message to the Activity     private Messenger outMessenger       class IncomingHandler extends Handler                Override         public void handleMessage Message msg                                            Target we publish for clients to send messages to Incoming Handler              final Messenger mMessenger   new Messenger new IncomingHandler                     And here  final Messenger mMessenger   new Messenger new IncomingHandler      I get the following Lint warning   This Handler class should be static or leaks might occur  IncomingHandler  What does it mean

User · Accepted Answer

If IncomingHandler class is not static  it will have a reference to your Service object   Handler objects for the same thread all share a common Looper object  which they post messages to and read from    As messages contain target Handler  as long as there are messages with target handler in the message queue  the handler cannot be garbage collected  If handler is not static  your Service or Activity cannot be garbage collected  even after being destroyed   This may lead to memory leaks  for some time at least - as long as the messages stay int the queue  This is not much of an issue unless you post long delayed messages   You can make IncomingHandler static and have a WeakReference to your service   static class IncomingHandler extends Handler       private final WeakReference lt UDPListenerService gt  mService        IncomingHandler UDPListenerService service            mService   new WeakReference lt UDPListenerService gt  service              Override     public void handleMessage Message msg                 UDPListenerService service   mService get             if  service    null                  service handleMessage msg                        See this post  by Romain Guy for further reference

User · Answer

I m confused  The example I found avoids the static property entirely and uses the UI thread       public class example extends Activity           final int HANDLE FIX SCREEN   1000          public Handler DBthreadHandler   new Handler Looper getMainLooper                  Override             public void handleMessage Message msg                    int imsg                  imsg   msg what                  if  imsg    HANDLE FIX SCREEN                        doSomething                                                       The thing I like about this solution is there is no problem trying to mix class and method variables

User · Answer

Here is a generic example of using a weak reference and static handler class to resolve the problem  as recommended in the Lint documentation    public class MyClass       static inner class doesn t hold an implicit reference to the outer class   private static class MyHandler extends Handler         Using a weak reference means you won t prevent garbage collection     private final WeakReference lt MyClass gt  myClassWeakReference        public MyHandler MyClass myClassInstance          myClassWeakReference   new WeakReference lt MyClass gt  myClassInstance               Override     public void handleMessage Message msg          MyClass myClass   myClassWeakReference get          if  myClass    null               do work here                                  An example getter to provide it to some external class      or just use  new MyHandler this   if you are using it internally       If you only use it internally you might even want it as final member       private final MyHandler mHandler   new MyHandler this           public Handler getHandler         return new MyHandler this

User · Answer

I am not sure but you can try intialising handler to null in onDestroy

User · Answer

With the help of  Sogger s answer  I created a generic Handler   public class MainThreadHandler lt T extends MessageHandler gt  extends Handler        private final WeakReference lt T gt  mInstance       public MainThreadHandler T clazz               Remove the following line to use the current thread          super Looper getMainLooper             mInstance   new WeakReference lt  gt  clazz               Override     public void handleMessage Message msg            T clazz   mInstance get            if  clazz    null                clazz handleMessage msg                       The interface   public interface MessageHandler        void handleMessage Message msg        I m using it as follows  But I m not 100  sure if this is leak-safe  Maybe someone could comment on this   public class MyClass implements MessageHandler        private static final int DO IT MSG   123       private MainThreadHandler lt MyClass gt  mHandler   new MainThreadHandler lt  gt  this        private void start                Do it in 5 seconds          mHandler sendEmptyMessageDelayed DO IT MSG  5   1000               Override     public void handleMessage Message msg            switch  msg what                case DO IT MSG                  doIt                    break

User · Answer

As others have mentioned the Lint warning is because of the potential memory leak  You can avoid the Lint warning by passing a Handler Callback when constructing Handler  i e  you don t subclass Handler and there is no Handler non-static inner class    Handler mIncomingHandler   new Handler new Handler Callback          Override     public boolean handleMessage Message msg               todo         return true              As I understand it  this will not avoid the potential memory leak  Message objects hold a reference to the mIncomingHandler object which holds a reference the Handler Callback object which holds a reference to the Service object  As long as there are messages in the Looper message queue  the Service will not be GC  However  it won t be a serious issue unless you have long delay messages in the message queue

User · Answer

This way worked well for me  keeps code clean by keeping where you handle the message in its own inner class   The handler you wish to use  Handler mIncomingHandler   new Handler new IncomingHandlerCallback       The inner class  class IncomingHandlerCallback implements Handler Callback            Override         public boolean handleMessage Message message                    Handle message code              return true

[android] This Handler class should be static or leaks might occur: IncomingHandler

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