A common real-life example of a shutdown hook in Java is when a server application needs to gracefully shut down and release resources when it receives a signal to terminate.

For instance, let's say a web server application is running and listening for incoming HTTP requests. When the server application receives a shutdown signal, it needs to stop accepting new requests, complete any in-progress requests, and release any resources used by the application.

To accomplish this, the server application can use a shutdown hook to perform the necessary cleanup tasks. The shutdown hook is a special thread that is registered with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) and is executed when the JVM receives a termination signal.

The shutdown hook can perform various tasks such as closing database connections, flushing buffers, and releasing any acquired locks. By using a shutdown hook, the server application can ensure that all resources are released properly and the application is shut down gracefully, avoiding any potential data loss or corruption.

The JVM has a default shutdown behavior.