diff -r 9f0b95aafaa3 -r ed84c8bdd87b src/org/sonews/daemon/AbstractDaemon.java
--- /dev/null	Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 1970 +0000
+++ b/src/org/sonews/daemon/AbstractDaemon.java	Sun Aug 29 17:28:58 2010 +0200
@@ -0,0 +1,101 @@
+/*
+ *   SONEWS News Server
+ *   see AUTHORS for the list of contributors
+ *
+ *   This program is free software: you can redistribute it and/or modify
+ *   it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
+ *   the Free Software Foundation, either version 3 of the License, or
+ *   (at your option) any later version.
+ *
+ *   This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
+ *   but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
+ *   MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE.  See the
+ *   GNU General Public License for more details.
+ *
+ *   You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License
+ *   along with this program.  If not, see <http://www.gnu.org/licenses/>.
+ */
+
+package org.sonews.daemon;
+
+import java.sql.SQLException;
+import org.sonews.storage.StorageManager;
+import org.sonews.util.Log;
+
+/**
+ * Base class of all sonews threads.
+ * Instances of this class will be automatically registered at the ShutdownHook
+ * to be cleanly exited when the server is forced to exit.
+ * @author Christian Lins
+ * @since sonews/0.5.0
+ */
+public abstract class AbstractDaemon extends Thread
+{
+
+  /** This variable is write synchronized through setRunning */
+  private boolean isRunning = false;
+
+  /**
+   * Protected constructor. Will be called by derived classes.
+   */
+  protected AbstractDaemon()
+  {
+    setDaemon(true); // VM will exit when all threads are daemons
+    setName(getClass().getSimpleName());
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * @return true if shutdown() was not yet called.
+   */
+  public boolean isRunning()
+  {
+    synchronized(this)
+    {
+      return this.isRunning;
+    }
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * Marks this thread to exit soon. Closes the associated JDBCDatabase connection
+   * if available.
+   * @throws java.sql.SQLException
+   */
+  public void shutdownNow()
+    throws SQLException
+  {
+    synchronized(this)
+    {
+      this.isRunning = false;
+      StorageManager.disableProvider();
+    }
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * Calls shutdownNow() but catches SQLExceptions if occurring.
+   */
+  public void shutdown()
+  {
+    try
+    {
+      shutdownNow();
+    }
+    catch(SQLException ex)
+    {
+      Log.get().warning(ex.toString());
+    }
+  }
+  
+  /**
+   * Starts this daemon.
+   */
+  @Override
+  public void start()
+  {
+    synchronized(this)
+    {
+      this.isRunning = true;
+    }
+    super.start();
+  }
+  
+}