Mem'-gc and seralization- need help.

Question

Hi,
I have an application that uses serialization to send object through sockets.
The application runs great but after few hours the memory increases dramatically.
It looks like the memory increases according to the size of the object I�m passing.
I�ve tried to assign to the read object null and call System.gc(), the memory does not change. Furthermore the read object is a local object in a function that ends after every read.
Any suggestions?

Answer 1

You may still have a link to the object buried somewhere. Do they even come near a Collection which could be holding them.
1. Sometimes it's not a obvious as it would seem. You could put something into a hashtable, and then something else comes along and gets a reference to it. Even if you get rid of the first reference and the Hashtable, it will still be referenced.
2. Some things could be held by an object, held by an object, which is still references. Chains like that cna be tricky.
3. Finally, some objects reference more than you think. If you take a substring from a really long String and get rid of the reference to the really long String, your substring is still actually holding a reference back to it. If you get a lost of Strings and keep parts of them, that could cause the problem.