The Java Garbage Collection Mini-Book

The Java Garbage Collection Mini-book provides a concise, accessible guide for Java architects and senior developers who want to understand what garbage collection is, how it works, and how it impacts the execution of their programs. This book dives right into the details. Starting with an examination of the Java heap and pointers, safe-points, and generational collection, the book then explores each collector in turn, describing its memory structure, the basics of the algorithm, and its performance characteristics. The collectors covered are: 1. Serial, Parallel, CMS and G1 from the OpenJDK distributions 2. Balanced and Metronome from IBM 3. C4 from Azul Systems 4. Red Hat's forthcoming Shenandoah Later sections look at tuning, logging, and some programming techniques to produce less garbage.