[[HowcanIstoparoutefromaroute-HowcanIstoparoutefromaroute]]
= How can I stop a route from a route

The xref:camelcontext.adoc[CamelContext] provides API for managing
routes at runtime. It has a `stopRoute(id)` and `startRoute(id)`
methods.

Stopping a route during routing an existing message is a bit tricky. The
reason for that is Camel will xref:graceful-shutdown.adoc[Graceful
Shutdown] the route you are stopping. And if you do that while a message
is being routed the xref:graceful-shutdown.adoc[Graceful Shutdown] will
try to wait until that message has been processed.

The best practice for stopping a route from a route, is to either:

* signal to another thread to stop the route
* spin off a new thread to stop the route

Using another thread to stop the route is also what is normally used
when stopping Camel itself, or for example when an application in a
server is stopped etc. Its too tricky and hard to stop a route using the
same thread that currently is processing a message from the route. This
is not advised to do, and can cause unforeseen side effects.

[[HowcanIstoparoutefromaroute-UsingalatchtostopCamelfromaroute]]
== Using a latch to stop Camel from a route

In this example we use a `CountdownLatch` to signal when Camel should
stop, triggered from a route.

And in the route we call the latch as shown:

[[HowcanIstoparoutefromaroute-Usingathreadtostoparoutefromaroute]]
== Using a thread to stop a route from a route

In this example we use a separate `Thread` to stop the route, triggered
from the route itself.

And in the route we create the thread and call the `stopRoute` method as
shown:

[[HowcanIstoparoutefromaroute-Alternativesolutions]]
== Alternative solutions

Camel provides another feature for managing routes at runtime which is
xref:route-policy.adoc[RoutePolicy].

And xref:camelcontext.adoc[CamelContext] also provides API for
suspend/resume of routes, and shutdown as well.

* suspend/resume is faster than stop/start. For example a HTTP server
will still run but deny any incoming requests.
Whereas if it was stopped the HTTP listener would have been stopped.
* shutdown means the route is being removed from
xref:camelcontext.adoc[CamelContext] and cannot be started again. Its
also removed from JMX.
A route must have been stopped prior to be shutdown.

See more details about the xref:lifecycle.adoc[Lifecycle].

NOTE: You can also use the xref:components::controlbus-component.adoc[ControlBus] component to let
it stop/start routes.

