Transparent garbage collection of resources
US6584478B1 · kind B1 · utility
Assignee
Inventor
Key dates
| Filing date | Sep 1, 2000 |
| Grant date | Jun 24, 2003 |
| Priority date | — |
| Expiry date | Sep 1, 2020 |
Classification
- Technology area (CPC Y)Emerging Cross-Sectional Technologies
- CPC primaryY10S707/99957
- WIPO fieldComputer technology
- WIPO sectorElectrical engineering
Abstract
Techniques for transparently registering non-memory resources used by a program with a garbage collector so that the non-memory resources can be freed when the program is finished using them. The techniques automatically determine from the program that the execution will use a resource and then automatically modify the program's behavior so that the resource is registered. When the program is finished with the resource, it can be determined from the registry whether the resource must be freed. In one embodiment, the technique is employed in a garbage collector for doing resource garbage collection with legacy C and C++ programs. The garbage collector locates invocations that allocate such resources in the code and modifies the code so that when it is executed, the resources are registered. The techniques can also be used to ensure that finalizers associated with objects are executed before the object is freed. In this use, the invocation of the constructor for the object is modified so that the object and its finalizer are registered. When the object is no longer in use, the garbage collector uses the registry to obtain the object's finalizer, which it executes before it frees the …
Source: USPTO / EPO open patent data. Objective bibliographic and citation counts.