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srar021 Whats Java Garbage Callecion? How It Works, Best Practices, Tutorials, and Moco Stackty
What is Java Garbage Collection? How It
Works, Best Practices, Tutorials, and More
ALEXANDRA ALTVATERMAY 11, 2017
DEVELOPER TIPS, TRICKS & RESOURCES
At Stackify, we battle our fair share of code performance problems
too, including issues surrounding Java garbage collection. In this
post, we'll take a look at Java garbage collection, how it works,
and why it matters.
A Definition of Java Garbage Collection
Java garbage collection is the process by which Java programs
perform automatic memory management. Java programs compile
to bytecode that can be run on a Java Virtual Machine, or JVM for
short. When Java programs run on the JVM, objects are created
on the heap, which is a portion of memory dedicated to the
program. Eventually, some objects will no longer be needed. The
garbage collector finds these unused objects and deletes them to
free up memory.
How Java Garbage Collection Works
Java garbage collection is an automatic process. The programmer
does not need to explicitly mark objects to be deleted. The
garbage collection implementation lives in the JVM. Each JVM
can implement garbage collection however it pleases; the only
requirement is that it meets the JVM specification. Although there
are many JVMs, Oracle’s HotSpot is by far the most common. It
offers a robust and mature set of garbage collection options.
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Whatis Java Garbage Collection? How It Works, Best Pacts, Tutorials, ané Mace —Stackly
While HotSpot has multiple garbage collectors that are optimized
for various use cases, all its garbage collectors follow the same
basic process. In the first step, unreferenced objects are identified
and marked as ready for garbage collection. In the second step,
marked objects are deleted. Optionally, memory can be
compacted after the garbage collector deletes objects, so
remaining objects are in a contiguous block at the start of the
heap. The compaction process makes it easier to allocate
memory to new objects sequentially after the block of memory
allocated to existing objects.
All of HotSpot’s garbage collectors implement a generational
garbage collection strategy that categorizes objects by age. The
rationale behind generational garbage collection is that most
objects are short-lived and will be ready for garbage collection
soon after creation.
htpsustackiy.comtwhatis-java-garbage-cllecton!srar021 Whats Java Garbage Callecion? How It Works, Best Practices, Tutorials, and Moco Stackty
Image via Wikipedia
The heap is divided into three sections:
+ Young Generation: Newly created objects start in the Young
Generation. The Young Generation is further subdivided into
an Eden space, where all new objects start, and two Survivor
spaces, where objects are moved from Eden after surviving
one garbage collection cycle. When objects are garbage
collected from the Young Generation, it is a minor garbage
collection event.
Old Generation: Objects that are long-lived are eventually
moved from the Young Generation to the Old Generation.
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Whatis Java Garbage Collection? How It Works, Best Pacts, Tutorials, ané Mace —Stackly
When objects are garbage collected from the Old Generation,
it is a major garbage collection event.
Permanent Generation: Metadata such as classes and
methods are stored in the Permanent Generation. Classes
that are no longer in use may be garbage collected from the
Permanent Generation.
During a full garbage collection event, unused objects in all
generations are garbage collected.
HotSpot has four garbage collectors:
Serial: All garbage collection events are conducted serially in
one thread. Compaction is executed after each garbage
collection.
Parallel: Multiple threads are used for minor garbage
collection. A single thread is used for major garbage collection
and Old Generation compaction. Alternatively, the Parallel Old
variant uses multiple threads for major garbage collection and
Old Generation compaction.
CMS (Concurrent Mark Sweep): Multiple threads are used
for minor garbage collection using the same algorithm as
Parallel. Major garbage collection is multi-threaded, like
Parallel Old, but CMS runs concurrently alongside application
processes to minimize “stop the world” events (i.e. when the
garbage collector running stops the application). No
compaction is performed.
G1 (Garbage First): The newest garbage collector is intended
as a replacement for CMS. It is parallel and concurrent like
CMS, but it works quite differently under the hood compared
to the older garbage collectors.
Benefits of Java Garbage Collection
The biggest benefit of Java garbage collection is that it
automatically handles the deletion of unused objects or objects
that are out of reach to free up vital memory
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Wat Java Garbage Collecion? How lt Works, Best Practices, Tutors, ane More — Stackty
resources. Programmers working in languages without garbage
collection (like C and C++) must implement manual memory
management in their code.
Despite the extra work required, some programmers argue in
favor of manual memory management over garbage collection,
primarily for reasons of control and performance. While the debate
over memory management approaches continues to rage on,
garbage collection is now a standard component of many popular
programming languages. For scenarios in which the garbage
collector is negatively impacting performance, Java offers many
options for tuning the garbage collector to improve its efficiency.
Java Garbage Collection Best Practices
For many simple applications, Java garbage collection is not
something that a programmer needs to consciously consider.
However, for programmers who want to advance their Java skills,
it is important to understand how Java garbage collection works
and the ways in which it can be tuned.
Besides the basic mechanisms of garbage collection, one of the
most important points to understand about garbage collection in
Java is that it is non-deterministic, and there is no way to predict
when garbage collection will occur at run time. It is possible to
include a hint in the code to run the garbage collector with the
System.gc() or Runtime.gc() methods, but they provide no
guarantee that the garbage collector will actually run.
The best approach to tuning Java garbage collection is setting
flags on the JVM. Flags can adjust the garbage collector to be
used (e.g. Serial, G1, etc.), the initial and maximum size of the
heap, the size of the heap sections (e.g. Young Generation, Old
Generation), and more. The nature of the application being tuned
is a good initial guide to settings. For example, the Parallel
garbage collector is efficient but will frequently cause “stop the
world” events, making it better suited for backend processing
where long pauses for garbage collection are acceptable.
htpsustackiy.comtwhatis-java-garbage-cllecton! snosyeraoat ‘Wht is Java Garoage Collection? How It Works, Best Practies,Tutorals,ané Moce~ Stacy
On the other hand, the CMS garbage collector is designed to
minimize pauses, making it ideal for GUI applications where
responsiveness is important. Additional fine-tuning can be
accomplished by changing the size of the heap or its sections and
measuring garbage collection efficiency using a tool like jstat.
Additional Resources and Tutorials on Java
Garbage Collection
Visit the following resources and tutorials for further reading on
Java garbage collection:
Java Garbage Collection Basics
What is the garbage collector in Java?
How to Tune Java Garbage Collection
Garbage Collectors — Serial vs. Parallel vs. CMS vs. G1 (and
what's new in Java 8)
Garbage Collection in Java
Understanding the Java Garbage Collection Log
Guide to detect, avoid, and fix memory leaks in Java
About the Author
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