Re: Run garbage collection
Wojtek Bok wrote On 10/30/06 12:17,:
Is it possible to run garbage collection on a particular instance of a class?
I am manipulating JPG images (rotate, etc). This uses a LOT of memory when processing (about 9Mbytes for a 3MByte image). Once I am done with the
image, all the resources used can be garbage collected.
GC does run when the memory usage gets near 90%, but I would rather it be part of the image processing, that is process the image and right away
recover the memory used.
I know I can request that the JVM run GC overall, but can this be done on a particular object?
Probably not. It would amount to having the program assert
"such-and-such object is garbage," an assertion the JVM would
need to verify before it could be acted upon. (Consider the
consequences of collecting an object that did in fact have a
few live references still kicking around, whether through error
or through malice.)
To verify that an object is truly garbage (or that it is not
non-garbage, which may be a better description of contemporary
collectors), the JVM would need to do pretty much the same
amount of work it would do for an ordinary GC. It seems to me
that "trustworthy selective GC" would not offer much savings
over ordinary GC; TSGC would just complicate the JVM and might
even make ordinary GC slower by imposing extra bookkeeping.
--
Eric.Sosman@sun.com