I have a Main Program which is running a script on the target device(smart phone) and in a while loop waiting for stdout messages. However in this particular case, some of the heartbeat messages on the stdout could be spaced almost 45secs to a 1minute apart. something like: stream = device.runProgram(RESTORE_LOGS, new String[] {}); stream.flush(); String line = stream.readLine(); while (line.compareTo("") != 0) { reporter.commentOnJob(jobId, line); line = stream.readLine(); } So, I want to be a able to start a new interruptible thread after reading line from stdout with a required a sleep window. Upon being able to read a new line, I want to be able to interrupt/stop(having trouble killing the process), handle the newline of stdout text and restart a process. And it the event I am not able to read a line within the timer window(say 45secs) I want to a way to get out of my while loop either. I already tried the thread.run, thread.interrupt approach. But having trouble killing and starting a new thread. Is this the best way out or am I missing something obvious?