purge_java: Purge Java processes

In photon: High-Performance Geocoding using 'photon'

Purge Java processes

Description

Kill all or selected running Java processes. This function is useful to stop Photon instances when not being able to kill the process objects. Be aware that you can also kill Java processes other than the photon application using this function!

Usage

purge_java(pids = NULL, ask = TRUE)

Arguments

pids	PIDs to kill. The PIDs should be Java processes. If NULL, tries to kill all Java processes.
ask	If TRUE, asks for consent before killing the processes. Defaults to TRUE.

Details

A list of running Java tasks is retrieved using ps (on Linux and MacOS) or tasklist (on Windows). Tasks are killed using pkill (on Linux and MacOS) or Taskkill (on Windows).

Value

An integer vector of the pkill / Taskkill status codes or NULL if not running Java processes are found.

Examples

# NOTE: These examples should only be run interactively or when you are
# sure that no other java processes are running simultaneously!
## Not run: 
purge_java() # does nothing if no java processes are running

# start a new photon instance
dir <- file.path(tempdir(), "photon")
photon <- new_photon(dir, country = "Monaco")
photon$start()

# kill photon using a sledgehammer
purge_java()

photon$start()

# kill photon using a scalpel
library(ps)
p <- ps_handle(photon$proc$get_pid())
pids <- sapply(ps_children(p), ps::ps_pid)
purge_java(pids)
## End(Not run)

photon documentation built on April 10, 2026, 5:07 p.m.