Javadoc
Stop shuts the running Locator down. Using the API, the Locator is requested to stop by calling
the Locator object's 'stop' method. Internally, this method is no different than using the
LocatorLauncher class from the command-line or from within GemFire shell (Gfsh). In every
single case, stop sends a TCP/IP 'shutdown' request on the configured address/port to which the
Locator is bound and listening.
If the "shutdown" request is successful, then the Locator will be 'STOPPED'. Otherwise, the
Locator is considered 'OFFLINE' since the actual state cannot be fully assessed (as in the
application process in which the Locator was hosted may still be running and the Locator object
may still exist even though it is no longer responding to location-based requests). The later
is particularly important in cases where the system resources (such as Sockets) may not have
been cleaned up yet. Therefore, by returning a status of 'OFFLINE', the value is meant to
reflect this in-deterministic state.