How to restart springboot application from code - spring-boot

Question

I have a springboot application with embedded tomcat. And on certain cases it should be restarted from code.
I have read several articles and SO posts regarding this,but yet to find a clean solution.
I am aware that 'context.close' , 'SpringApplication.exit(context)' exist and can be wrapped into something like this:
public static void restart() {
ApplicationArguments args = context.getBean(ApplicationArguments.class);
Thread thread = new Thread(() -> {
context.close();
context = SpringApplication.run(Application.class, args.getSourceArgs());
});
thread.setDaemon(false);
thread.start();
}
source: https://www.baeldung.com/java-restart-spring-boot-app
The problem is that using context.close() just doesn't work in a clean way. The context itself will be restarted though, but bunch of Threads will be left in the background (like Thread[pool-3-thread-1,5,main] Thread[Signal Dispatcher,9,system] Thread[OkHttp TaskRunner,5,main] ..etc).
And for every context restart these will be recreated, so the number of threads adds up gradually by each restart. Resulting in huge Thread mess as time passes.
Note1: A simple application exit by using 'context.close()' also wouldn't work because of these left over Threads. So the context close doesnt even close the application.
Note2: If I use System.exit(SpringApplication.exit(context)) I can kill the app gracefully, but can't restart it.
Note3: I don't want to use neither devtools nor actuator
So the question is how to perform a total restart for a springboot application?

Answer 1

You can use the RestartEndPoint in spring-cloud-context dependency to restart the Spring Boot application programmatically:
#Autowired
private RestartEndpoint restartEndpoint;
...
Thread restartThread = new Thread(() -> restartEndpoint.restart());
restartThread.setDaemon(false);
restartThread.start();