Servlet Lifecycle
Servlet Lifecycle Overview
The Servlet container manages the complete lifecycle of a Servlet. The lifecycle consists of three main phases:
- Initialization —
init()is called once when the Servlet is first loaded - Request Handling —
service()is called for every client request - Destruction —
destroy()is called once when the Servlet is removed from service
The container creates only one instance of each Servlet and handles concurrent requests using multiple threads. This is why Servlet instance variables must be thread-safe.
package com.example;
import javax.servlet.*;
import javax.servlet.http.*;
import javax.servlet.annotation.WebServlet;
import java.io.*;
import java.util.concurrent.atomic.AtomicInteger;
@WebServlet("/lifecycle")
public class LifecycleServlet extends HttpServlet {
// Use AtomicInteger for thread-safe counter
private AtomicInteger requestCount = new AtomicInteger(0);
private String initMessage;
// ===== PHASE 1: INITIALIZATION =====
// Called ONCE when servlet is first loaded (or at startup if load-on-startup is set)
@Override
public void init(ServletConfig config) throws ServletException {
super.init(config);
// Read init parameters
initMessage = config.getInitParameter("message");
if (initMessage == null) initMessage = "Default message";
System.out.println("[INIT] LifecycleServlet initialized. Message: " + initMessage);
}
// ===== PHASE 2: REQUEST HANDLING =====
// service() dispatches to doGet/doPost/etc. based on HTTP method
// You can override service() directly, but it's better to override doGet/doPost
@Override
protected void service(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
throws ServletException, IOException {
System.out.println("[SERVICE] Handling request #" + requestCount.incrementAndGet());
super.service(req, resp); // Delegates to doGet/doPost/etc.
}
@Override
protected void doGet(HttpServletRequest req, HttpServletResponse resp)
throws ServletException, IOException {
resp.setContentType("text/html;charset=UTF-8");
PrintWriter out = resp.getWriter();
out.println("<h2>Servlet Lifecycle Demo</h2>");
out.println("<p>Init message: " + initMessage + "</p>");
out.println("<p>Total requests: " + requestCount.get() + "</p>");
out.println("<p>Thread: " + Thread.currentThread().getName() + "</p>");
}
// ===== PHASE 3: DESTRUCTION =====
// Called ONCE when servlet is removed (server shutdown or undeploy)
@Override
public void destroy() {
System.out.println("[DESTROY] LifecycleServlet destroyed. Total requests served: "
+ requestCount.get());
// Release resources: close DB connections, stop threads, etc.
}
}
load-on-startup and Lazy Loading
By default, Servlets are loaded lazily — on the first request. You can force eager loading at startup using load-on-startup:
- Negative value (default): Lazy loading — loaded on first request
- 0 or positive: Eager loading — loaded at container startup. Lower numbers load first.
// loadOnStartup = 1 means load at startup, priority 1 (loads before priority 2, 3, etc.)
@WebServlet(urlPatterns = "/app", loadOnStartup = 1)
public class AppInitServlet extends HttpServlet {
@Override
public void init() throws ServletException {
// This runs at server startup
System.out.println("Application initialized at startup");
// Initialize shared resources: DB connection pool, caches, etc.
getServletContext().setAttribute("appStartTime", System.currentTimeMillis());
}
}
<servlet>
<servlet-name>AppInitServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.example.AppInitServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>1</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
<servlet>
<servlet-name>DataServlet</servlet-name>
<servlet-class>com.example.DataServlet</servlet-class>
<load-on-startup>2</load-on-startup>
</servlet>
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