JAVA中的各种引用

JAVA中引用的分类

• 强引用
• 软引用 表示一个有用但是非必须的对象。
• 弱引用 表示希望在下一次垃圾回收时回收的对象
• 虚引用 主要用于监控对象何时被回收

实现

Reference

Reference是软引用，弱引用和虚引用的基类。

该类在初始化时，会启动一个内部线程

        Thread handler = new ReferenceHandler(tg, "Reference Handler");
        /* If there were a special system-only priority greater than
         * MAX_PRIORITY, it would be used here
         */
        handler.setPriority(Thread.MAX_PRIORITY);
        handler.setDaemon(true);
        handler.start();

该线程一直试图重复下面逻辑

    transient private Reference<T> discovered; 
    
    static boolean tryHandlePending(boolean waitForNotify) {
        Reference<Object> r;
        Cleaner c;
        try {
            synchronized (lock) {
                if (pending != null) {
                    r = pending;
                    // 'instanceof' might throw OutOfMemoryError sometimes
                    // so do this before un-linking 'r' from the 'pending' chain...
                    c = r instanceof Cleaner ? (Cleaner) r : null;
                    // unlink 'r' from 'pending' chain
                    pending = r.discovered;
                    r.discovered = null;
                } else {
                    // The waiting on the lock may cause an OutOfMemoryError
                    // because it may try to allocate exception objects.
                    if (waitForNotify) {
                        lock.wait();
                    }
                    // retry if waited
                    return waitForNotify;
                }
            }
        } catch (OutOfMemoryError x) {
            // Give other threads CPU time so they hopefully drop some live references
            // and GC reclaims some space.
            // Also prevent CPU intensive spinning in case 'r instanceof Cleaner' above
            // persistently throws OOME for some time...
            Thread.yield();
            // retry
            return true;
        } catch (InterruptedException x) {
            // retry
            return true;
        }

        // Fast path for cleaners
        if (c != null) {
            c.clean();
            return true;
        }

        ReferenceQueue<? super Object> q = r.queue;
        if (q != ReferenceQueue.NULL) q.enqueue(r);
        return true;
    }

SoftReference

内部维持了一个clock（由垃圾处理器负责更新）和一个timestamp（由get方法负责更新）。如果clock大于很多timestamp，则表示推荐回收。

public class SoftReference<T> extends Reference<T> {

    /**
     * Timestamp clock, updated by the garbage collector
     */
    static private long clock;

    /**
     * Timestamp updated by each invocation of the get method.  The VM may use
     * this field when selecting soft references to be cleared, but it is not
     * required to do so.
     */
    private long timestamp;

    /**
     * Creates a new soft reference that refers to the given object.  The new
     * reference is not registered with any queue.
     *
     * @param referent object the new soft reference will refer to
     */
    public SoftReference(T referent) {
        super(referent);
        this.timestamp = clock;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a new soft reference that refers to the given object and is
     * registered with the given queue.
     *
     * @param referent object the new soft reference will refer to
     * @param q the queue with which the reference is to be registered,
     *          or <tt>null</tt> if registration is not required
     *
     */
    public SoftReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue<? super T> q) {
        super(referent, q);
        this.timestamp = clock;
    }

    /**
     * Returns this reference object's referent.  If this reference object has
     * been cleared, either by the program or by the garbage collector, then
     * this method returns <code>null</code>.
     *
     * @return   The object to which this reference refers, or
     *           <code>null</code> if this reference object has been cleared
     */
    public T get() {
        T o = super.get();
        if (o != null && this.timestamp != clock)
            this.timestamp = clock;
        return o;
    }

}

WeakReference

public class WeakReference<T> extends Reference<T> {

    /**
     * Creates a new weak reference that refers to the given object.  The new
     * reference is not registered with any queue.
     *
     * @param referent object the new weak reference will refer to
     */
    public WeakReference(T referent) {
        super(referent);
    }

    /**
     * Creates a new weak reference that refers to the given object and is
     * registered with the given queue.
     *
     * @param referent object the new weak reference will refer to
     * @param q the queue with which the reference is to be registered,
     *          or <tt>null</tt> if registration is not required
     */
    public WeakReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue<? super T> q) {
        super(referent, q);
    }

}

PhantomReference

PhantomReference的get方法永远返回null。

public class PhantomReference<T> extends Reference<T> {

    /**
     * Returns this reference object's referent.  Because the referent of a
     * phantom reference is always inaccessible, this method always returns
     * <code>null</code>.
     *
     * @return  <code>null</code>
     */
    public T get() {
        return null;
    }

    /**
     * Creates a new phantom reference that refers to the given object and
     * is registered with the given queue.
     *
     * <p> It is possible to create a phantom reference with a <tt>null</tt>
     * queue, but such a reference is completely useless: Its <tt>get</tt>
     * method will always return null and, since it does not have a queue, it
     * will never be enqueued.
     *
     * @param referent the object the new phantom reference will refer to
     * @param q the queue with which the reference is to be registered,
     *          or <tt>null</tt> if registration is not required
     */
    public PhantomReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue<? super T> q) {
        super(referent, q);
    }

}

ReferenceQueue

标准用法如下

ReferenceQueue queue = new ReferenceQueue();

WeakReference reference = new WeakReference(new Object(), queue);
System.out.println(reference);
System.gc();

Reference reference1 = queue.remove();
System.out.println(reference1);

应用

WeakHashMap

Finalize

Object类中默认给出了finalize方法，也就是什么也不做。
实现了object的finalize的类在创建时会新建一个FinalizerReference，这个对象是强引用类型，封装了override finalize的对象，下面直接叫原对象。原对象没有被其他对象引用时（FinalizeReference除外），执行GC不会马上被清除掉，而是放入一个静态链表中（ReferenceQueue），有一个守护线程专门去维护这个链表，如何维护呢？就是轮到该线程执行时就弹出里面的对象，执行它们的finalize，对应的FinalizerReference对象在下次执行GC时就会被清理掉。
一个堆的FinalizerReference会组成一条双向链表，垃圾回收器应该会持有链表头（链表头在FinalizerReference中为一个静态成员）。
这种机制有些时候会导致内存泄露。
直接原因就是守护线程优先级比较低，运行的时间比较少。如果较短时间内创建较多的原对象，就会因为守护线程来不及弹出原对象而使FinalizerReference和原对象都得不到回收。无论怎样调用GC都没有用的，因为只要原对象没有被守护线程弹出执行其finalize（）方法，FinalizerReference对象就不会被GC回收。
多说一句，没事别使用Finalize机制。