About Daemon Threads in Java

There can be two types of threads in Java viz User Thread and Daemon Thread. All the threads created by a user are user threads. A thread becomes Daemon thread when the user says so. User threads are meant for the program code.

On the other hand Daemon threads are service provider threads. They should not be used to run your program code but some system code. The run() method for a daemon thread is typically an infinite loop that waits for a service request. These threads run in parallel to your code but survive on the mercy of the JVM. When JVM finds no user threads it stops and all daemon threads are terminated instantly. Thus one should never rely on daemon code to perform any program code.

For better understanding consider a well known example of Daemon thread : Java garbage collector. The Garbage collector runs as a low priority daemon thread to reclaim any unused memory. When all user threads terminates, JVM may stop and garbage collector also terminates instantly. 

Daemon threads are typically used to perform services for your application/applet. The core difference between user threads and daemon threads is that the JVM will only shut down a program when all user threads have terminated. Daemon threads are terminated by the JVM when there are no longer any user threads running, including the main thread of execution. Use daemons as the minions they are. This makes sense because when only daemon threads remain, there is no other thread for which a daemon thread can provide a service.

To specify that a thread is a daemon thread, call the setDaemon() method with the argument true. To determine if a thread is a daemon thread, use the accessor method isDaemon().