How to find out if "debug mode" is enabled

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How can a Java program find out if it is running in debug mode?

The application should behave a bit different in regular “full speed” mode than in “debug mode” (when a debugger is attached, when running in debug mode). The application communicates over TCP with either another computer, another process, or within itself. My co-worker wants us to use Socket.setSoTimeout(1000) by default, so that reads from the socket can block for at most 1 second. When debugging, this is not enough of course, and the application stops working as it should. So a solution would be to set the SO_TIMEOUT higher, but just in debug mode (for example: unlimited). Now, I don't always set breakpoints or don't want use a debug build where I could set the “debug” property myself. Sometimes I attach the debugger (remote debugging). I'm mainly using Eclipse so a solution that just works there is OK.

Possible answers include:

  1. To find out if run in debug mode, use the following method in java.lang.management.* or javax.management.* ...

  2. Your co-worker is wrong for reason X, you shouldn't set SO_TIMEOUT to 1 second by default.

Update

I know about the system property approach, but I leave the question open to solve my original question.

3 Answers
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