what is garbage collection in java
Jul 28, 2025 am 02:45 AMJava's garbage collection mechanism automatically manages memory, identifying and freeing objects that are no longer in use to avoid memory leaks. 1. Use accessibility analysis to determine whether the object is garbage; 2. Common recyclers include Serial GC, Parallel GC, CMS, G1, ZGC and Shenandoah; 3. Developers can optimize GC performance by reasonably setting the heap size, avoiding memory leaks, optimizing object life cycle, monitoring GC behavior, etc.
Java's Garbage Collection (GC) is an automatic memory management mechanism of Java virtual machines (JVMs). Its main function is to identify and free up memory space occupied by objects that are no longer used by the program, thereby avoiding memory leaks and errors caused by manual memory management.

The basic principles of garbage recycling
Objects in Java are created on the heap. When an object is no longer pointed to by any reference variable, it becomes "garbage" and can be recycled. The JVM will run the garbage collector regularly to clean up these useless objects and free up memory resources.
There are two common ways to determine whether the object is garbage:

- Reference counting method : Maintain a counter for each object, add one whenever a reference points to it, and decrement one when the reference fails. Objects with zero count are garbage.
- Accessibility analysis : Starting from a set of root nodes (such as local variables, static variables, etc. in the thread stack), iterates through all reference chains. Unreached objects are considered unreachable, that is, garbage.
Although the concept of reference counting is simple, Java actually uses accessibility analysis because it cannot solve the problem of circular reference.
Types of garbage collectors
JVM provides a variety of garbage collectors suitable for different scenarios and performance requirements:

- Serial GC : Single-threaded recycler, suitable for small applications or client mode.
- Parallel GC : Multi-threaded recycler, focusing on throughput, suitable for background services or batch tasks.
- CMS (Concurrent Mark Sweep) : aims at the shortest pause time, suitable for applications that are sensitive to response time.
- G1 (Garbage First) : A modern mainstream recycler that divides the heap into multiple regions (regions), prioritizing the recycling of the area with the most garbage, taking into account throughput and latency.
- ZGC and Shenandoah : A new generation of low-latency recyclers suitable for handling super large heap memory.
You can choose the appropriate garbage collector based on the performance requirements and heap size of your application.
How to affect the performance of garbage collection
Although garbage collection is done automatically, developers can still optimize the performance of GC in some ways:
- Reasonably set the heap size : set the initial and maximum heap memory through
-Xms
and-Xmx
to avoid frequent expansion or insufficient memory. - Avoid memory leaks : such as closing resources in time and avoiding meaningless long-life cycle references.
- Choose the right object. Life cycle : Short-lived objects should be recycled in the new generation as much as possible to reduce the probability of entering the old age.
- Monitor GC behavior : Use tools such as
jstat
,VisualVM
or log analysis tools to observe GC frequency, time consumption and other indicators.
If you find that the program frequently has Full GC or has a long pause, you may need to adjust the parameters or check the code logic.
Tips: Some details that are easy to ignore
- Even if
System.gc()
is called, the JVM does not necessarily perform garbage collection immediately, it just makes a request. - Using the
finalize()
method will affect GC performance, because the JVM needs to process these objects extra, so it is not recommended to rely on it for resource cleaning. - In modern JVM, most short life cycle objects are allocated in the Eden area . After several times, objects that still survive in Minor GC will be moved to the Survivor area and eventually enter the old age .
Basically that's it. Although garbage collection is automatically completed, understanding its working mechanism and influencing factors will help write more efficient and stable Java programs.
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