[java] IllegalMonitorStateException on wait() call

I am using multi-threading in java for my program. I have run thread successfully but when I am using Thread.wait(), it is throwing java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException. How can I make a thread wait until it will be notified?

wait is defined in Object, and not it Thread. The monitor on Thread is a little unpredictable.

Although all Java objects have monitors, it is generally better to have a dedicated lock:

private final Object lock = new Object();

You can get slightly easier to read diagnostics, at a small memory cost (about 2K per process) by using a named class:

private static final class Lock { }
private final Object lock = new Lock();

In order to wait or notify/notifyAll an object, you need to be holding the lock with the synchronized statement. Also, you will need a while loop to check for the wakeup condition (find a good text on threading to explain why).

synchronized (lock) {
    while (!isWakeupNeeded()) {
        lock.wait();
    }
}

To notify:

synchronized (lock) {
    makeWakeupNeeded();
    lock.notifyAll();
}

It is well worth getting to understand both Java language and java.util.concurrent.locks locks (and java.util.concurrent.atomic) when getting into multithreading. But use java.util.concurrent data structures whenever you can.

In order to deal with the IllegalMonitorStateException, you must verify that all invocations of the wait, notify and notifyAll methods are taking place only when the calling thread owns the appropriate monitor. The most simple solution is to enclose these calls inside synchronized blocks. The synchronization object that shall be invoked in the synchronized statement is the one whose monitor must be acquired.

Here is the simple example for to understand the concept of monitor

public class SimpleMonitorState {

    public static void main(String args[]) throws InterruptedException {

        SimpleMonitorState t = new SimpleMonitorState();
        SimpleRunnable m = new SimpleRunnable(t);
        Thread t1 = new Thread(m);
        t1.start();
        t.call();

    }

    public void call() throws InterruptedException {
        synchronized (this) {
            wait();
            System.out.println("Single by Threads ");
        }
    }

}

class SimpleRunnable implements Runnable {

    SimpleMonitorState t;

    SimpleRunnable(SimpleMonitorState t) {
        this.t = t;
    }

    @Override
    public void run() {

        try {
            // Sleep
            Thread.sleep(10000);
            synchronized (this.t) {
                this.t.notify();
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
    }
}

Based on your comments it sounds like you are doing something like this:

Thread thread = new Thread(new Runnable(){
    public void run() { // do stuff }});

thread.start();
...
thread.wait();

There are three problems.

1. As others have said, obj.wait() can only be called if the current thread holds the primitive lock / mutex for obj. If the current thread does not hold the lock, you get the exception you are seeing.

2. The thread.wait() call does not do what you seem to be expecting it to do. Specifically, thread.wait() does not cause the nominated thread to wait. Rather it causes the current thread to wait until some other thread calls thread.notify() or thread.notifyAll().

   There is actually no safe way to force a Thread instance to pause if it doesn't want to. (The nearest that Java has to this is the deprecated Thread.suspend() method, but that method is inherently unsafe, as is explained in the Javadoc.)

   If you want the newly started Thread to pause, the best way to do it is to create a CountdownLatch instance and have the thread call await() on the latch to pause itself. The main thread would then call countDown() on the latch to let the paused thread continue.

3. Orthogonal to the previous points, using a Thread object as a lock / mutex may cause problems. For example, the javadoc for Thread::join says:

   This implementation uses a loop of this.wait calls conditioned on this.isAlive. As a thread terminates the this.notifyAll method is invoked. It is recommended that applications not use wait, notify, or notifyAll on Thread instances.

I received a IllegalMonitorStateException while trying to wake up a thread in / from a different class / thread. In java 8 you can use the lock features of the new Concurrency API instead of synchronized functions.

I was already storing objects for asynchronous websocket transactions in a WeakHashMap. The solution in my case was to also store a lock object in a ConcurrentHashMap for synchronous replies. Note the condition.await (not .wait).

To handle the multi threading I used a Executors.newCachedThreadPool() to create a thread pool.

Since you haven't posted code, we're kind of working in the dark. What are the details of the exception?

Are you calling Thread.wait() from within the thread, or outside it?

I ask this because according to the javadoc for IllegalMonitorStateException, it is:

Thrown to indicate that a thread has attempted to wait on an object's monitor or to notify other threads waiting on an object's monitor without owning the specified monitor.

To clarify this answer, this call to wait on a thread also throws IllegalMonitorStateException, despite being called from within a synchronized block:

     private static final class Lock { }
     private final Object lock = new Lock();

    @Test
    public void testRun() {
        ThreadWorker worker = new ThreadWorker();
        System.out.println ("Starting worker");
        worker.start();
        System.out.println ("Worker started - telling it to wait");
        try {
            synchronized (lock) {
                worker.wait();
            }
        } catch (InterruptedException e1) {
            String msg = "InterruptedException: [" + e1.getLocalizedMessage() + "]";
            System.out.println (msg);
            e1.printStackTrace();
            System.out.flush();
        }
        System.out.println ("Worker done waiting, we're now waiting for it by joining");
        try {
            worker.join();
        } catch (InterruptedException ex) { }

    }

I know this thread is almost 2 years old but still need to close this since I also came to this Q/A session with same issue...

Please read this definition of illegalMonitorException again and again...

IllegalMonitorException is thrown to indicate that a thread has attempted to wait on an object's monitor or to notify other threads waiting on an object's monitor without owning the specified monitor.

This line again and again says, IllegalMonitorException comes when one of the 2 situation occurs....

1> wait on an object's monitor without owning the specified monitor.

2> notify other threads waiting on an object's monitor without owning the specified monitor.

Some might have got their answers... who all doesn't, then please check 2 statements....

synchronized (object)

object.wait()

If both object are same... then no illegalMonitorException can come.

Now again read the IllegalMonitorException definition and you wont forget it again...

Not sure if this will help somebody else out or not but this was the key part to fix my problem in user "Tom Hawtin - tacklin"'s answer above:

synchronized (lock) {
    makeWakeupNeeded();
    lock.notifyAll();
}

Just the fact that the "lock" is passed as an argument in synchronized() and it is also used in "lock".notifyAll();

Once I made it in those 2 places I got it working

Thread.wait() call make sense inside a code that synchronizes on Thread.class object. I don't think it's what you meant.
You ask

How can I make a thread wait until it will be notified?

You can make only your current thread wait. Any other thread can be only gently asked to wait, if it agree.
If you want to wait for some condition, you need a lock object - Thread.class object is a very bad choice - it is a singleton AFAIK so synchronizing on it (except for Thread static methods) is dangerous.
Details for synchronization and waiting are already explained by Tom Hawtin. java.lang.IllegalMonitorStateException means you are trying to wait on object on which you are not synchronized - it's illegal to do so.

Those who are using Java 7.0 or below version can refer the code which I used here and it works.

public class WaitTest {

    private final Lock lock = new ReentrantLock();
    private final Condition condition = lock.newCondition();

    public void waitHere(long waitTime) {
        System.out.println("wait started...");
        lock.lock();
        try {
            condition.await(waitTime, TimeUnit.SECONDS);
        } catch (InterruptedException e) {
            // TODO Auto-generated catch block
            e.printStackTrace();
        }
        lock.unlock();
        System.out.println("wait ends here...");
    }

    public static void main(String[] args) {
        //Your Code
        new WaitTest().waitHere(10);
        //Your Code
    }

}