Learn about the steps, types, and components of Java garbage collectors to see how they contribute to better runtimes and user experiences with your apps.
The Java garbage collector poses a great impact on the overall working and performance of an application. As the size of the garbage grows, the runtime of an application decreases. Hence, it is essential that you clear this garbage off of your application every now and then to enhance its productivity and user performance.
Garbage collection can be quite a daunting task. After all, choosing a wrong garbage collector type or settings can hamper the functionality of your app. There are typically seven types of garbage collectors known to us. These are classically bifurcated between the ‘mostly’ and ‘most concurrent’ category. With the ‘mostly’ types, they sometimes do not operate as expected and a fallback mechanism takes place. On the other hand, the ‘most concurrent’ collectors function concurrently with the application’s execution and rarely stop the world.
Before implementing the garbage cleaning step, it is essential to note whether your application has touched the GC safe point. That is the range where the collector can quickly recognize the thread execution references and complete the process. If your application has to wait for the safe point, it could very well run out of memory and collapse.
The first and the foremost thing is to understand the nature of the application and the core functionality of the garbage collector.
The compaction time and the mark time make for the most important metrics for tracking the time of the garbage collection cycle. While the latter measures the time taken for identification of live objects, the former maps time taken to free up the memory and do the necessary allocation.
Bottom line, garbage collection is an integral part of an application’s performance over the Java platform. As Java devs, we need to implement strategies in order to build an application that speaks of excellent performance, scalability, and reliability.
