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Message:

System.gc() Is a Suggestion, not a Command

Posted by Bill Venners on March 25, 2000 at 3:22 PM

> I am writing a GUI for Sun's command-line javac, mainly for educational purposes, but also hoping to get use out of it. I've reached the part where I deal with opening and saving files. In order to ensure that no file is ever being written to and read at the same time, I'm creating a class that will sit in memory and keep track of all the files I'm using. That way I'll be able to synchronize on the File objects. My problem is that if I use regular references in the manager class, File will not be garbage collected, nor will file handles be released. I was hoping to make a Vector of WeakReferences to the objects, since that would (theoretically) cause the GC to kill the File off for me when I was no longer using it. Unfortunately, a test program a I wrote seems o be telling me that I'm not using WeakReferences correctly:

> import java.lang.ref.*;

> public class test
> {
> public static void main(String[] args)
> {
> String a = new String("This object is uncollected!");
> WeakReference b = new WeakReference(a);
> System.out.println(b.get());
> //Remove strong reference to the String
> a = null;
> //Call garbage collector...
> System.gc();
> //Shouldn't the String be finalized?
> if(b.get() == null)
> System.out.println("It works!");
> else // This is the condition that is executed
> System.out.println(b.get());
> System.exit(0);
> }
> }

> This program was compiled and run under Sun's JDK 1.2.2 compiler, and the output was:

> This object is uncollected!
> This object is uncollected!

> Why didn't the second line say, "It works!"? Any help or explanation on WeakReferences or the GC would be appreciated.
>
Well, one thing that may be happening is that System.gc() is
not guaranteed to cause the garbage collector to collect
everything. System.gc() is just a hint to the garbage collector
that now is a good time to collect, but the garbage collector
can decide whether or not to do anything.

Here's what the javadoc for System.gc() says:

Calling the gc method suggests that the Java Virtual Machine
expend effort toward recycling unused objects in order to
make the memory they currently occupy available for quick
reuse. When control returns from the method call, the Java
Virtual Machine has made a best effort to reclaim space from
all discarded objects.

For an example of a garbage collector that would usually ignore
the System.gc() suggestion completely, consider a copying
collector. That kind of garbage collector doesn't collect
until it fills up half of the heap. So if you heap doesn't
happen to be half full when you call System.gc(), no objects
will be reclaimed.

bv

• WeakReference - It works! Amrinder Arora June 28, 2001 at 6:15 PM (0)
• WeakReference - alok February 14, 2001 at 5:53 PM (2)
  • wrefs infotone April 04, 2001 at 12:56 PM (1)
    • Weakrefs Thomas December 07, 2001 at 9:25 AM (0)