java 强制gc,Java：你如何使用JVMTI的ForceGargabeCollection强制GC？

I'm not looking for the usual "you can only hint the GC in Java using System.gc()" answers, this is not at all what this question is about.

My questions is not subjective and is based on a reality: GC can be forced in Java for a fact. A lot of programs that we use daily do it: IntelliJ IDEA, NetBeans, VisualVM.

They all can force GC to happen.

How is it done?

I take it they're all using JVMTI and more specifically the ForceGarbageCollection (notice the "Force") but how can I try it for myself?

Also note that this question is not about "why" I'd want to do this: the "why" may be "curiosity" or "we're writing a program similar to VisualVM", etc.

The question is really "how do you force a GC using JVMTI's ForceGarbageCollection"?

Does the JVM needs to be launched with any special parameters?

Is any JNI required? If so, what code exactly?

Does it only work on Sun VMs?

Any complete and compilable example would be most welcome.

解决方案

NetBeans, at least, uses System.gc(): http://hg.netbeans.org/main/annotate/9779f138a9c9/openide.actions/src/org/openide/actions/GarbageCollectAction.java (this is for the little button that shows current heap and lets you start GC). If you follow that link, you'll see that they explicitly run finalizers. If you have a few gig of disk space free, and want to investigate the code yourself, it's available via Mercurial: hg clone http://hg.netbeans.org/main/

As far as I can tell, the "System.gc() is just a hint" dogma originates in pedantic interpretation of the JLS and JVM Spec, which allow for Java implementations that don't have a garbage-collected heap. That, and an incomplete reading of the JavaDoc:

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.

Read the second sentence: "best effort to reclaim space" is a lot stronger than "hint."

That said, there's rarely a reason to call System.gc(). With apologies to Knuth:

We should forget about memory management, say about 97% of the time: explicit garbage collection is the root of all evil