5.9 The RMIFailureHandler Interface

The java.rmi.server.RMIFailureHandler interface provides a method for specifying how the RMI runtime should respond when server socket creation fails (except during object export).

package java.rmi.server;

public interface RMIFailureHandler {

	public boolean failure(Exception ex);
}

The failure method is invoked with the exception that prevented the RMI runtime from creating a java.net.ServerSocket. The method returns true if the runtime should attempt to retry and false otherwise.

Before this method can be invoked, a failure handler needs to be registered via the RMISocketFactory.setFailureHandler call. If the failure handler is not set, the RMI runtime attempts to re-create the ServerSocket after waiting for a short period of time.

Note that the RMIFailureHandler is not called when ServerSocket creation fails upon initial export of the object. The RMIFailureHandler will be called when there is an attempt to create a ServerSocket after a failed accept on that ServerSocket.