Akka Stopping Actors

In Akka, you can stop Actors by invoking the stop() method of either ActorContext or ActorSystem class. ActorContext is used to stop child actor and ActorSystem is used to stop top level Actor.

The actual termination of the actor is performed asynchronously.

There are some other methods available in Akka, which are used to stop Actor. Some of which are PoisonPill, terminate() and gracefulStop() are used to stop Actor.

Akka Stopping Top Level Actor Example

You can simply call stop() method to stop top level Actor. The following example describes the uses of stop() method.

Output:

Message received: Hello
Actor stoped

Akka Stopping Child Actor Example

Output:

Message received by RootActor: Hello
Message received by ChildActor: Hello child Actor
Child Actor stoped

Akka Stopping ActorSystem Example

You can stop actor system by calling it's terminate method. This method will stop the guardian actor, which in turn will recursively stop all its child actors.

Output:

Message received by RootActor: Hello
Message received by ChildActor: Hello child Actor
Child Actor stoped
Top Level Actor stoped