Principle:Ray project Ray Runtime Shutdown
| Knowledge Sources | |
|---|---|
| Domains | Distributed_Computing, Resource_Management |
| Last Updated | 2026-02-13 17:00 GMT |
Overview
A graceful teardown mechanism that disconnects a client process from the distributed runtime, releasing all held resources and native handles.
Description
Runtime Shutdown is the complement of runtime initialization. It gracefully disconnects the client from the cluster scheduler and object store, releases native resources (JNI handles, shared memory mappings), and nullifies the runtime reference to prevent further distributed operations. Proper shutdown prevents resource leaks and ensures clean process termination.
Usage
Use this principle as the final step in any Ray application, or rely on the JVM shutdown hook registered during initialization. Explicit shutdown is recommended in long-running applications or when reinitializing the runtime within the same JVM process.
Theoretical Basis
Shutdown follows the Resource Acquisition Is Initialization (RAII) pattern adapted for distributed systems. The key requirement is idempotency — calling shutdown multiple times must be safe (a no-op after the first call). The operation is synchronized to prevent race conditions with concurrent operations.
Pseudo-code:
synchronized shutdown():
if runtime != null:
runtime.releaseResources()
runtime = null