Method of instrumenting garbage collection generating a trace file making a single pass analysis of object heap

US6434575B1 · kind B1 · utility

Assignee

• International Business Machines Corporation · US

Inventors

• Robert Francis Berry · Austin, US
• Raymond Morris Bryant · Austin, US
• Weiming Gu · Austin, US
• John Day Howard · Austin, US
• William Robert Reynolds · Austin, US
• Robert John Urquhart · Austin, US

Key dates

• Filing date: Nov 12, 1998
• Grant date: Aug 13, 2002
• Expiry date: Nov 12, 2018

Classification

• Technology area (CPC Y): Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
• CPC primary: Y10S707/99957
• WIPO field: Computer technology
• WIPO sector: Electrical engineering

Abstract

A method and apparatus for instrumenting garbage collection in a data processing system is provided. During garbage collection, a pass is made through the object heap and a plurality of heap data is retrieved and written to a trace file. The data may include the type of object, the size of the object on the heap, the class of the object, if appropriate, and a plurality of pointers, including live set pointers, and one or more tags representing attributes that may be associated with the particular object. The instrumentation may controlled to occur at a preselected phase of the garbage collection process. Additionally, a user may dynamically initiate a garbage collection instrumentation if the user determines that an event has occurred during the operation of the data processing system about which the user wishes further data.