From 65e9ea5d2b0ada4f0288ec80cf26884f5093b68e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Gerard de Leeuw <gdeleeuw@leeuwit.nl>
Date: Tue, 30 Dec 2025 08:55:46 +0100
Subject: [PATCH] fix: stop thread pools when an error occurs during startup

Signed-off-by: Gerard de Leeuw <gdeleeuw@leeuwit.nl>
---
 .../src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/Operator.java | 6 +++++-
 1 file changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/Operator.java b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/Operator.java
index 7aa29c98ae..0da3d6742b 100644
--- a/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/Operator.java
+++ b/operator-framework-core/src/main/java/io/javaoperatorsdk/operator/Operator.java
@@ -203,6 +203,11 @@ public synchronized void start() {
   public void stop() throws OperatorException {
     Duration reconciliationTerminationTimeout =
         configurationService.reconciliationTerminationTimeout();
+
+    // Always stop the executor service manager to prevent dangling threads,
+    // even if the operator didn't fully start
+    configurationService.getExecutorServiceManager().stop(reconciliationTerminationTimeout);
+
     if (!started) {
       return;
     }
@@ -210,7 +215,6 @@ public void stop() throws OperatorException {
         "Operator SDK {} is shutting down...", configurationService.getVersion().getSdkVersion());
     controllerManager.stop();
 
-    configurationService.getExecutorServiceManager().stop(reconciliationTerminationTimeout);
     leaderElectionManager.stop();
     if (configurationService.closeClientOnStop()) {
       getKubernetesClient().close();