java - Cancelling a thread safely due to timeout -

i have queue of tasks need performed, , pool of workers pick tasks , perform them. there's "manager" class keeps track of worker, allows user stop or restart them, reports on progress, etc. each worker this:

public void dowork() {     checkarguments();     performcalculation();     saveresultstodatabase();     performanothercalculation();     saveresultstodatabase();     performyetanothercalculation();     saveresultstodatabase(); } 

in case, "database" not refer oracle database. that's 1 of options, results saved on disk, in amazon simpledb, etc.

so far, good. however, performcalculation() code locks intermittently, due variety of factors, due poor implementation of networking code in bunch of third-party libraries (f.ex. socket.read() never returns). bad, obviously, because task stuck forever, , worker dead.

what i'd wrap entire dowork() method in sort of timeout, and, if timeout expires, give task else.

how can that, though ? let's original worker stuck in "performcalculation()" method. give task other worker, completes it, , original worker decides wake , save intermediate results database... corrupting valid data. there general pattern can use avoid ?

i can see couple of solutions, of them require serious refactoring of business-logic code, ground up... right thing philosophically, not have time for.

have tried using future? useful running task , waiting complete, using timeout etc. example:

private runnable performcalc = new runnable() {    public void run() {     performcalculation();   } }  public void dowork() {   try {     executorservice executor = executors.newfixedthreadpool(1);     executor.submit(performcalc).get(); // timeouts can used here.     executor.submit(anothercalc).get();   } catch(interruptedexception e) {     // asked stop. rollback out transactions.   } catch(otherexceptions here) {   } }