Garbage Collector behaviour

It seems that the only requirement of a garbage collector is that it must cleanup some unreferenced objects when the system is low in memory. Aside from that, is there anywhere that documents in some detail what the garbage collector will actually do for a specific version of the VM, specifically 1.3.1?
I am interested in knowing:
1) Does the GC periodically run cleanups? If so, when? Does it cleanup all unreferenced objects, or only some? How does it decide? etc.
2) How does the GC respond to calls to System.gc()? Will it do a thorough cleanup or half-hearted? Will it cleanup right away? etc.
3) Is there any delay between marking an object for cleanup and running the finalize method?
4) How does the GC respond to calls to Runtime::runFinalization()?
Thanks,
-Brian

1) Does the GC periodically run cleanups?Basically yes.
If so, when?Randomly. It isn't defined. When the JVM starts to run down with memory, gc will more likely run, but it's not guaranteed.
Does it cleanup all unreferenced objects, or only some?Randomly; It runs in a background thread, and may stop frequently.
2) How does the GC respond to calls to System.gc()?It'll schedule it to run, but nothing guarantees that it actually will run.
Will it cleanup right away?Definitely not. Maybe it'll start it, it even possible that it'll do all of it, but equivalently possible that won't cleanup anything. No way to tell.
3) Is there any delay between marking an object for
cleanup and running the finalize method?Yup, the delay might be anything from almost zero to infinite time.
It is even possible that your program stops before the gc would ever
finalized one single object.
4) How does the GC respond to calls to
Runtime::runFinalization()?Well, this is a weak request that you're going to run finalizations, but
nothing will guarantee that it actually will happen.
The best you can do is never provide finalize() methods, and even if you do, do not trust that they'll ever run!
The only advise I can give: forget that such animal as "garbage collector" exists.

Similar Messages

Strange garbage collector behaviour

Hello,
I am seeing quite a strange behaviour from the garbage collector in one of our applications.
The application is a standalone Java app, it receives requests over a TCP socket and responds to them. It is basically a kind of a cache before the database. There is a constant request flow of 10-100 requests per second. Average response time is below 50ms. It is running on a multiprocessor Sun machine, JDK 1.4.1_02.
The problem arises when the app has been running for a while. Depending on the allowed maximum memory size - with 256mb after about half a day, with 512mb after about a day, the garbage collector seems to be running most of the time. We turned on GC logging and from the log I can see that initially for a long period only the DefNew collector is used. The GC times are ~0.05sec then. Then after some time old generation collections start taking place. These collections take 3-4 seconds. The old gen collections then become more frequent until all that is going on, is one collection after another. About 3-4seconds for the collection, then after another 3-4 seconds the same thing again.
Can anyone please help in understanding what can cause this kind of behaviour? I am quite sure that the app is stable in a sense that it doesn't start to eat up extra memory at some point.
Any help greatly appreciated,
erik
Here are some excerpts from the GC log:
After startup:
100.264: [GC 100.264: [DefNew: 83488K->1290K(84800K), 0.0487560 secs] 87278K->5080K(259584K), 0.0490613 secs]
107.439: [GC 107.439: [DefNew: 83530K->1299K(84800K), 0.0526107 secs] 87320K->5178K(259584K), 0.0528313 secs]
111.554: [GC 111.554: [DefNew: 83539K->1207K(84800K), 0.0539021 secs] 87418K->5230K(259584K), 0.0541348 secs]
119.724: [GC 119.724: [DefNew: 83447K->1359K(84800K), 0.0561691 secs] 87470K->5382K(259584K), 0.0564463 secs]
125.576: [GC 125.576: [DefNew: 83599K->1366K(84800K), 0.0622342 secs] 87622K->5504K(259584K), 0.0624880 secs]
130.987: [GC 130.987: [DefNew: 83606K->1331K(84800K), 0.0586104 secs] 87744K->5607K(259584K), 0.0588732 secs]
138.695: [GC 138.695: [DefNew: 83571K->1296K(84800K), 0.0588720 secs] 87847K->5697K(259584K), 0.0591136 secs]
144.413: [GC 144.413: [DefNew: 83536K->1246K(84800K), 0.0607789 secs] 87937K->5790K(259584K), 0.0612128 secs]
150.661: [GC 150.661: [DefNew: 83486K->1279K(84800K), 0.0486299 secs] 88030K->5823K(259584K), 0.0488933 secs]
157.186: [GC 157.187: [DefNew: 83519K->1410K(84800K), 0.0545036 secs] 88063K->5954K(259584K), 0.0547557 secs]
162.937: [GC 162.937: [DefNew: 83650K->1230K(84800K), 0.0590144 secs] 88194K->5998K(259584K), 0.0592747 secs]
171.555: [GC 171.555: [DefNew: 83470K->1334K(84800K), 0.0554568 secs] 88238K->6101K(259584K), 0.0557090 secs]
175.416: [GC 175.416: [DefNew: 83574K->1315K(84800K), 0.0584964 secs] 88341K->6178K(259584K), 0.0587433 secs]
182.616: [GC 182.616: [DefNew: 83555K->1307K(84800K), 0.0709417 secs] 88418K->6234K(259584K), 0.0712034 secs]
And then in the end:
13177.7: [GC 13177.7: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000487 secs]13177.7: [Tenured: 95861K->96094K(174784K), 3.7160279 secs] 178101K->96094K(259584K), 3.7165109 secs]
13183.9: [GC 13183.9: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000459 secs]13183.9: [Tenured: 96094K->96268K(174784K), 3.6973634 secs] 178334K->96268K(259584K), 3.6978356 secs]
13193: [GC 13193: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000534 secs]13193: [Tenured: 96268K->95923K(174784K), 4.6233189 secs] 178508K->95923K(259584K), 4.6237995 secs]
13201.2: [GC 13201.2: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000531 secs]13201.2: [Tenured: 95923K->96100K(174784K), 3.7120306 secs] 178163K->96100K(259584K), 3.7125165 secs]
13208.6: [GC 13208.6: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000502 secs]13208.6: [Tenured: 96100K->96268K(174784K), 3.6950267 secs] 178340K->96268K(259584K), 3.6955072 secs]
13218.1: [GC 13218.1: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000582 secs]13218.1: [Tenured: 96268K->96442K(174784K), 3.7476890 secs] 178508K->96442K(259584K), 3.7481875 secs]
13225.8: [GC 13225.8: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0002743 secs]13225.8: [Tenured: 96442K->96200K(174784K), 4.9092106 secs] 178682K->96200K(259584K), 4.9103437 secs]
13234.4: [GC 13234.4: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000541 secs]13234.4: [Tenured: 96200K->96409K(174784K), 3.7423712 secs] 178440K->96409K(259584K), 3.7428506 secs]
13240.6: [GC 13240.6: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000528 secs]13240.6: [Tenured: 96409K->96633K(174784K), 3.6245501 secs] 178649K->96633K(259584K), 3.6250124 secs]
13273.7: [GC 13273.7: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000651 secs]13273.7: [Tenured: 96633K->96799K(174784K), 3.7021988 secs] 178873K->96799K(259584K), 3.7027242 secs]
13283: [GC 13283: [DefNew: 82240K->82240K(84800K), 0.0000510 secs]13283: [Tenured: 96799K->96620K(174784K), 4.9944806 secs] 179039K->96620K(259584K), 4.9949444 secs]
I can provide the whole log if neccessary.

The most likely cause of this problem is a memory leak in your application. As the memory reaches close to its limit the GC has to run for longer, more often to get free memory.
The runtime before going slow being proportional to the memory size.
Can you have the program log the System.freeMemory() and System.totalMemory()

Garbage Collector blocks - weird behaviour

Hi!
After launching an application we ran into weird problems with the garbage collector. It's a combo of Jetty/JGroups/Helma-Application-Server and various other libraries on a RedHat 7.3 box. The problem occurs on a machine with relativly high load (~10 requests/sec) but doesn't come along with high load automatically.
After some hours uptime the garbage collector blocks for increasingly longer intervals until the application is reachable only for seconds every few minutes. In concerns exclusivly minor GC in the new space. Each stop lasts for just 1/10000 seconds but that in a loop of 1000s times back-to-back.
The logfile created by the -Xloggc option looks like this:
20085.784: [GC 20085.785: [ParNew
Desired survivor size 32768 bytes, new threshold 0 (max 0)
: 71552K->0K(71616K), 0.0634410 secs] 380477K->312523K(511936K), 0.0639970 secs]
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0652310 seconds
Application time: 8.7885840 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0005810 seconds
Application time: 0.0005620 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0006080 seconds
Application time: 0.0002630 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0004410 seconds
Application time: 0.0001790 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0005480 seconds
Application time: 0.0001670 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0003440 seconds
Application time: 0.0001210 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0004450 seconds
Application time: 0.0001590 seconds
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0004220 seconds
Application time: 0.0002180 seconds
20095.265: [GC 20095.265: [ParNew
Desired survivor size 32768 bytes, new threshold 0 (max 0)
: 71552K->0K(71616K), 0.0753260 secs] 384282K->317322K(511936K), 0.0759450 secs]
Total time for which application threads were stopped: 0.0767720 seconds
Application time: 0.3346050 seconds
While the "Total time.." lines were printed, the app was unreachable. "Application time" usually marks the time the app was running between two garbage collections. It seems as if the garbage collector tries to stop the app, can't do it for whatever reason and tries again a moment later.
We've tested any suitable garbage collector, we've tried out j2sdk1.4.2_02, j2sdk1.4.2_07, jdk1.5.0_01, jdk1.5.0_02, we've tried different machines to exclude hardware failure. It is hard to reproduce in a test environment but we've seen a few lines like above on a windows box too (no longer blocking times, tough). There aren't any OutOfMemoryErrors, the heap management looks fine. After GC about 3/4 of the heap are freed even while the above problem occurs, so we're ruling out a memory leak.
Maybe someone here has stumbled across that problem or has any ideas what could trigger such a behaviour? After two weeks of debugging I've run out of ideas on where to look for a bug.
Yours remotely,
Stefan

hi there
Can u add -XX:+PrintHeapAtGC -XX:+PrintGC and show the portion of the log files?
You are using the -XX:+ParNewGC? Any -XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC?
Also, add -XX:+DisableExplicitGC
Hope this helps.

Swing components and the garbage collector

How much care does one need to take with swing components, with reference to running out of stack space? I ask because I'm writing a system for an automotive parts company, and the company tends to not reboot the machines very often...
Anyway... if a JFrame is closed, is it and all its components marked for GCing? Do I need to call the dispose method, or is this part of the default close behaviour? Or is there something else entirely?
Cheers

In class that calls for .setVisible(false) of one JFrame u MUST call
for dispose() method.
so
myFrame.setVisible(false)
myFrame.dispose()
myFrame = null // to help the garbage collector
If u have classes that becames from JFrame (or JDialog) u can
invoke in its constructors:
this.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE)
This makes uncecessary to call for dispose() method explicetly.
If u do not have this kind of classes u can invoke this method
after u have create your JFrame
JFrame myFrame = new JFrame();
myFrame.setDefaultCloseOperation(JFrame.DISPOSE_ON_CLOSE)
The most important thing is REMOVE ALL LISETNERS that u have added, so, if u have classes that becames from JFrame u can ovverride
the dispose method to do that
eg
public void dispose()
super.dispose()
removeActionListener(.....)
and so on
If u do not have this kind of classes u must remove all listeners u have
added before u invoke the setVisible(false) method.
Regards

Incremental Garbage Collector is halting my server for MINUTES at a time.

I have a Java server which services hundreds (currently 300-700 on average, target of 2000+) of simultaneous client connections, with a staggering number of long lived (but not permanent) objects.
The docs for incremental garbage collection state: "The incremental garbage collector, which is off by default, will eliminate occasional garbage-collection pauses during program execution." This is NOT true in my case. During peak load, the Server halts occasionally (once an hour or more) and entire MINUTES tick by. Average wait time is 2.5 - 3.5 minutes, the highest I have seen is 4 minutes, 10 seconds. This is entirely unnacceptable.
The server is on Red Hat Linux 6.2, kernel 2.2.14-5.0, with a gig of RAM. My current command line options are
java -server -Xincgc -Xms256M -Xmx900M
And I have just added -verbose:gc to help analyze the gc performance. I have read the gc tuning guide at http://java.sun.com/docs/hotspot/gc/index.html but still feel rather clueless about what is the optimum setup for my particular application.
I will of course start experimenting, but I was hoping to find a "wise old elf" who might give some useful pointers to accelerate the process, seeing as how the Server is already running in a production capacity, time is critical.

Are you using a Java application server like Tomcat, Dynamo, WebLogic etc. ?
In that case consider running several server instances on the machine, with the applicationserver's software load balancer. Find the amount of RAM allocated to the heap per serverinstance where garbage collection runs takes a couple of seconds, and don't allocate more than this to each server. Start as many servers as you have available RAM for.
This is the approach recommended by application server vendors such as BEA http://edocs.bea.com/wls/docs61/perform/JVMTuning.html and ATG.
A side benefit of this approach is that in case you get more concurrent users than your computer can handle, you already have the setup for spreading the load over several computers.

Optimization of the JVM memory - Garbage Collector

Hi ,
Just a question about JVM memory management.
There is memory limitation of memory usage limitation (1.6M) in JVM.
Is there any possibility to use "Garbage collector" mechanism to optimize the memory usage?
Or any suggestions for the JVM memory optimization?
Thanks a lot!!!

nicolasmichael wrote:
Hi,
the "memory limitation" does not have anything to do with garbage collection, but with the address space your operating system provides. On a 32bit operating system, your virtual address space is limited to <= 4 GB, depending on your operating system (for example 1.something GB on Windows and 3.something GB on Solaris). No.
Windows 32 bit has a 2 GB application space and can be configured to allow a 3GB space.
The Sun VM does not allow more because of the way that the executable is linked.
[http://bugs.sun.com/bugdatabase/view_bug.do?bug_id=4358809]

Possible Bug in Garbage Collector?

Hello all
I'm new to these forums but I searched for this problem and couldn't find exactly the same thing - apologies if I missed something.
I've written an image browser which displays thumbnails, and when you click on a thumbnail it loads the image in a new window. This new window is just a JFrame, with a single JLabel, with an ImageIcon in it, representing the picture. The path name of the picture is passed when this JFrame is created, and the picture is loaded within the JFrame. Therefore, when I close the JFrame, I expect the memory associated with the image to disappear.
This works. However, when I open a fairly large image (around 1500x1500 pixels), and then close the window, the garbage collector doesn't free the memory. After this, if i continue to open windows with smaller images, they too have the same problem. However, this doesn't happen with smaller images until I open a larger image.
I think this is a problem with the garbage collector, is this familiar to anyone? Can anyone help? Unfortunately I can't really paste code since this is a university assignment. But you can try it - just load a jframe with a large picture, close it, and as long as the program runs the memory will not be deallocated.
Any help would be massively appreciated.
Thanks

Since you're not willing to post your code it's very hard to comment.
One question: Are you calling System.gc() after closing these frames? In fact you should probably call it 3 times to make sure the garbage collector takes you seriously. Try this and let us know if you're still showing the leak

How to get the garbage collector to work?

Hi,
i have i program where i load an image scale it down and save the scaled version in an array. I do this for a whole directory of images.
After every image i set the temporary variable for the loaded image = null and call the function System.gc().
My problem is, that the garbage collector does�nt give the memory of the loaded image free and the used memory of my program grows with every loaded image.
/* Reads all images from a folder an stores them in an Array of images */
     public static BufferedImage[] readScaledImagesFromFolder(String folder,
               int maxSize) {
          File dir = new File(folder);     /* Open the Folder */
          String[] children = dir.list();          /* Get the children of the folder */
          if (children == null) {
             // Either dir does not exist or is not a directory
              System.out.println("No images in the folder!");
              return null;
         } else {
              /* Init array for images */
              BufferedImage[] images = new BufferedImage[children.length];
              int i = 0;
              int index = 0;
              BufferedImage temp;
              String filename, fileending;
             for (i=0; i<children.length; i++) {
                  // Get filename of file or directory
                 filename = children;
     /* Get the fileending of the file */
     fileending = filename.toLowerCase().substring(filename.length()-4);
     if(fileending.equals(".jpg") || fileending.equals(".bmp")
               || fileending.equals(".png") || fileending.equals(".gif"))
          /* Read the image */
          temp = util.ImageUtils.loadBufferedImage(folder+"/"+filename);
          /* Scale the image down and save it in an array */
          images[index] = Util.getScaledImage(temp,maxSize);
          index++;
     temp = null;
     System.gc();
     Mosaic.sourceImageNum = index;
     System.out.println((index+1)+" resized pictures loaded from folder: "+folder);
     return images;
How can i get the gargabe collector to work after every iteration?
I tried to let the Thread.sleep(10) after System.gc() but it does�nt help.
Thank you every much
JackNeil

Hm yes.. i now that System.gc() is only a
suggestion.
But i know what my program is doing and that it
does�nt need the temporary image anymore after i have
a scaled down version. And the temporay image will become unreachable as soon as reading the next one overwrites your temp variable. Setting the variable to null doesn't have much effect.
It would be smarter to load the new image over the
old temporary image and not to expand the heapsize to
maximum.Then look at the possibitly of loading the next image into the same bufferedimage.

Garbage collector don't works.

Hello people !
When I restart the weblogic server this do not shows the lastest change that I made. I think the problem is related to the garbage collector and its bean tree.
Do you known how to solve this?
Thank you.
Regards.

I'm working with WebLogic Server 10.0 and the problem is if I restart the server this don't holds the lastest change that I made, it happens with any type of change (deploy, undeploy, create or delete servers/services, etc).
I've reviewed the log file and I've found the following error:
<Jun 2, 2008 6:45:14 PM CDT> <Warning> <Management> <BEA-141269> <The temporary bean tree updateDeploymentContext(Mon Jun 02 10:46:11 CDT 2008) was allocated for an undo, get, or activate operation, but has not been garbage collected.>
Stopping PointBase server...
PointBase server stopped.
Thank you for your attention

Clear method and Garbage Collector

Hi Gurus,
Does the Clear method (hashtable, vector etc..) is a good option for garbage collection ?
In other words, if I have a vector V with 100 elements and I perform a V.clear(), am I sure that the 100 elements are now candidates for the Garbage Collection ?
Or is it better to write a loop performing a NULL assignment for each element of the vector ?

Hi schapel,
I know it's not a good idea to force the garbage collector, but let me explain what I am confronted with.
(FYI, I didn't write the source code. Comes from a 3rd party)
The aim is to build a jsp page which is the list of the files contained in a web server directory.
I have a "Directory" class, and a "File" class. To build the jsp, each directory of the webserver is represented by a directory class, and each file, ...by a file class.
To simplify, when the tree structure of the web server is build in memory, I create a jsp page to list the files, and then, I do not need the vector anymore. But the vector can be quite huge and each client will build his own vector at the begening of his session (and will never use it again during the session).
Don't you think it's usefull in that situation to free some memory ?

CORBA and garbage collector

Hi,
I�m writing a server with a method create(), which returns a new object supplying a home banking service for the clients.
My question is : when a given client has finished with the home banking object, do I need to call the gc, or is there an efficient one with CORBA (a kind of distributed garbage collector) ?
Thank you in advance

Maybe you heard about Distributed Garbage Collector (DGC)? Don't rely on this, since IIOP does not support this. Use PortableRemoteObject.unexportObject() to make remote objects that are no longer in use available for garbage collection.
Bert

EMCC and Garbage Collector

We have 2 CUCM clusters connected via an ICT. We are migrating users from CM8.6 to CM10.5. During the migration we are changing Users AD attributes so that they disappear from CM8. As this marks the user as Inactive in CM8 (and deletes after 24hrs) this prevents the User from logging into CM10 with EMCC.
Is there a way around this?
ie force the garbage collector to run immediately and delete the user
or remove certain fields in CUCM 8 against the user so that they can login using CUCM10 credentials?
Thanks
Rich

I think you can do something clever here. You can convert the inactive user on cucm 8 back to a standard cucm user and then delete them. This way you can control when to remove the user instea dof waiting for garbage collection. You become your own garbage man :)
You can conver the users back to standard CUCM users using sql query update...Ths is easy to do
run sql update enduser set status=1 ( this is the general command to make all users standard cucm users..you don't want to run this..)
Use this command to make specific users active. You need to use the users extension to filter which user gets converted to standard cucm user
run sql update enduser set status=1 where telephonenumber like ‘2%’
This command will update users with extension beginning with 2
or
run sql update enduser set status=1 where telephonenumber = '2001'
This will convert user with extension 2001 to a standard cucm user
To make sure you got all the users you can use the command
run sql select * from enduser where status=0
This should return zero entry. If you find any user there then use the update command on those users

Garbage collector

Bonjour à la communauté Adobe et merci pour les
éventuelles réponses que je trouverai grâce à
vous.
Je relance je pense une fois de plus, comme sur de nombreux
forums, le problème du Garbage Collector.
J'ai un MovieClip crée dynamiquement. Ce MovieClip
contient un objet vidéo contrôlé et géré
dynamiquement via une classe (cette partie n'est pas bien
importante je suppose); bref je voudrais pouvoir supprimer
complètement ce clip, mais même après un
"removeChild(clip)" et un "clip = null", j'entend toujours le son
de la vidéo... ce qui me fait dire qu'il est toujours
matériellement présent, mais pourquoi??
mon code :
var mavideo:MovieClip;
mavideo = new monclip();
addChild(mavideo);
removeChild(mavideo);
mavideo = null;
System.gc();//j'ai même essayé de forcer le Garbage
Collector, sans succès.
Voilà donc ma question globale : comment supprimer
complètement un clip en as3?
Sorry for my bad english, but the question is : how to
completely delete a MovieClip using AS3? If I remove a MovieClip
which include a video, with the code below, i don't see the video
anymore but i can hear the sound... Strange, isn't it?

Bonjour à la communauté Adobe et merci pour les
éventuelles réponses que je trouverai grâce à
vous.
Je relance je pense une fois de plus, comme sur de nombreux
forums, le problème du Garbage Collector.
J'ai un MovieClip crée dynamiquement. Ce MovieClip
contient un objet vidéo contrôlé et géré
dynamiquement via une classe (cette partie n'est pas bien
importante je suppose); bref je voudrais pouvoir supprimer
complètement ce clip, mais même après un
"removeChild(clip)" et un "clip = null", j'entend toujours le son
de la vidéo... ce qui me fait dire qu'il est toujours
matériellement présent, mais pourquoi??
mon code :
var mavideo:MovieClip;
mavideo = new monclip();
addChild(mavideo);
removeChild(mavideo);
mavideo = null;
System.gc();//j'ai même essayé de forcer le Garbage
Collector, sans succès.
Voilà donc ma question globale : comment supprimer
complètement un clip en as3?
Sorry for my bad english, but the question is : how to
completely delete a MovieClip using AS3? If I remove a MovieClip
which include a video, with the code below, i don't see the video
anymore but i can hear the sound... Strange, isn't it?

I have a memory leak, objective-c 2.0, and garbage collector...

the code i am using is a modification of the code/problem found in "Cocoa with Objective-C", chapter 3.
i have tried to use the objective-c 2.0 garbage collector methodology, using @property, @synthesize, etc. when i run the code as listed below i get a leaking message.
[Session started at 2008-02-01 23:33:37 -0500.]
2008-02-01 23:33:38.070 SongsFoundationTool[28876:10b] * _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x2040 of class NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking
Stack: (0x96b10178 0x96a3e0f8)
2008-02-01 23:33:38.075 SongsFoundationTool[28876:10b] Song 1: We Have Exposive
2008-02-01 23:33:38.076 SongsFoundationTool[28876:10b] * _NSAutoreleaseNoPool(): Object 0x2060 of class NSCFString autoreleased with no pool in place - just leaking
Stack: (0x96b10178 0x96a3e0f8)
2008-02-01 23:33:38.078 SongsFoundationTool[28876:10b] Song 2: Loops of Fury
The Debugger has exited with status 0.
when i include the commented out section, in the implementation file section, the description method, and use song1 and song2, in main, instead of song1.name and song2.name the program seems to run fine.
The Debugger has exited with status 0.
[Session started at 2008-02-01 23:38:24 -0500.]
2008-02-01 23:38:24.375 SongsFoundationTool[28936:10b] Song 1: We Have Exposive
2008-02-01 23:38:24.379 SongsFoundationTool[28936:10b] Song 2: Loops of Fury
The Debugger has exited with status 0.
please help me understand what's happening here.
also, why was it necessary to use
@property(copy, readwrite) NSString *name;
@property(copy, readwrite) NSString *artist;
instead of
@property(readwrite) NSString *name;
@property(readwrite) NSString *artist;
thanks everyone, the code is below.
// ....................... header file ...............
#import <Cocoa/Cocoa.h>
@interface Song : NSObject {
NSString *name;
NSString *artist;
@property(copy, readwrite) NSString *name;
@property(copy, readwrite) NSString *artist;
@end
//.................... the implementation file ..................
#import "Song.h"
@implementation Song
@synthesize name;
@synthesize artist;
-(NSString *) description
return [ self name ];
@end
//................................ main............................
#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
#import "Song.h"
int main (int argc, const char * argv[]) {
Song *song1 = [ [ Song alloc ] init ];
song1.name= @"We Have Exposive" ;
[ song1 setArtist: @"The Future Sound Of Londown" ];
Song *song2 = [ [ Song alloc ] init ];
[ song2 setName: @"Loops of Fury" ];
[ song2 setArtist: @"The Chemical Brothers" ];
// Display Object
NSLog( @"Song 1: %@", song1.name );
NSLog( @"Song 2: %@", song2.name );
// include statements below if -description method is uncommented
// then comment out the two statements above. no memory leak if the code
// is used from the statements below and - description is not commented out and
// the two NSLog statements above are commented out.
NSLog( @"Song 1: %@", song1 );
NSLog( @"Song 2: %@", song2 );
return 0;
}

Normally, your main only has a call to NSApplicationMain(). If you aren't doing a traditional MacOS X application, you will still want at least NSApplicationLoad() to get enough of the runtime to avoid those messages.
I don't know for sure about the syntax of Objective-C 2.0. That stuff is all new. What error message are you getting that indicated that (copy, readwrite) is required? Could you provide a link to the actual example source? I did a quick check and assign and readwrite are the defaults. It is possible that readwrite by itself makes no sense. But I'm just guessing.

How does the Garbage Collector handle reference-free objects?

Hi,
I am interested to know how the GC handle's objects created
without a reference.
The reason this has become of interest to me is that I have
created a "Title" class. The Title class animates each letter of
Title.text to appear in a cloud of smoke.
The smoke is a simple particle system class, when a particle
dies it removes it's associated MovieClip so that eventually all
MovieClip's have been destroyed.
Now in the Title class for each letter I do the following
(psuedo-code):
for( Title.text.length) {
CurrentLetter.twAlpha = new Tween( blah, blah, blah); //
object created
with a reference
new Smoke( CurrentLetter.x, CurrentLetter.y); // object
created
without a reference
Although this is technique is not one I would ever have
thought of in a language that doesn't use a garbage collector it is
mentioned in the Tween documentation and my class works as
intended.
The thing is although it works, it always bothers me when I
don't know precisely
why it works!
If it's working due to the short life span of the class in
question and thus simply missing the GC's window then this could be
problematic. If at some point it is still alive when the GC is
called then my class could be prematurely deleted.
Maybe a class which has a reference to an "alive" MovieClip
is immune from GC?
I Hope someone can shed some light on this topic as the GC is
something that is thinly documented to say the least!
:theory
p.s. first post!

Hi,
I would say it would be better use FREE itab at the end of the processing in your code. In the end-of-selection in your code, you can FREE all your itabs that were used in the program. This is one of the good approach of optimizing the memory.
Regards
Vimal

Garbage Collector behaviour

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