Managing Garbage Collection in a Data Processing System

• US 20100017447A1
• Filed: 09/22/2008
• Published: 01/21/2010
• Est. Priority Date: 07/15/2008
• Status: Active Grant

• Current Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Original Assignee: International Business Machines Corporation
• Inventors: Levine, Frank Eliot, Jones, Scott Thomas
• Granted Patent: US 9,418,005 B2
• Time in Patent Office: Days
• US Class Current: N/A
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 12/0269 Incremental or concurrent garbage collection, e.g. in real-time systems G06F12/0261 takes precedence
• CPC Class Codes: G06F 9/4881 Scheduling strategies for dispatcher, e.g. round robin, multi-level priority queues

Abstract

A computer implemented method, apparatus, and computer program product for managing garbage collection. Monitoring is performed for a garbage collection state in a virtual machine. Responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, a priority for a set of garbage collection threads is increased.

Claims

1. A computer implemented method for managing garbage collection, the computer implemented method comprising:

monitoring for a garbage collection state within an execution environment; and

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, increasing a priority of a set of garbage collection threads.

2. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, decreasing a priority of a set of non-garbage collection threads.

3. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, paging out non-garbage collection threads.

4. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, paging out data areas associated with non-garbage collection threads.

5. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, paging in data areas previously or expected to be used by garbage collection threads.

6. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, assigning a processor to perform the garbage collection in a number of processors in a multi-processor data processing system.

7. The computer implemented method of claim 1 further comprising:

responsive to ending the garbage collection state, increasing a priority of a number of threads not required for the garbage collection.

8. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring step comprises:

waiting to receive a notification of the garbage collection state from one of a profiler and a virtual machine.

9. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring step comprises:

monitoring a set of locks associated with a heap for a garbage collection thread obtaining a lock from the set of locks.

10. The computer implemented method of claim 9, wherein the garbage collection thread is registered to allow for an identification of the garbage collection thread when the garbage collection thread obtains the lock.

11. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the monitoring step and the performing step are detected on a periodic basis.

12. The computer implemented method of claim 1, wherein the computer implemented method is implemented in at least one of a device driver, a virtual machine, an operating system, and an application performing the garbage collection.

13. A computer comprising:

a bus;

a storage device connected to the bus, wherein program code is stored on the storage device; and

a processor unit is connected to the bus, wherein the processor unit executes the program code to monitor for a garbage collection state within an execution environment, and increase a priority of a set of garbage collection threads in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

14. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to decrease a priority of a set of non-garbage collection threads in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

15. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to page out non-garbage collection threads in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

16. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to page out data areas associated with non-garbage collection threads in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

17. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to page in data areas previously or expected to be used by garbage collection threads in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

18. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to assign a processor to perform the garbage collection in a number of processors in a multi-processor data processing system in response to detecting the garbage collection state.

19. The computer of claim 13, wherein the processor unit further executes the program code to increase a priority of a number of threads not required for the garbage collection in response to ending the garbage collection state.

20. A computer program product for managing garbage collection, the computer program product comprising:

a computer recordable storage medium;

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, for monitoring for a garbage collection state within an execution environment; and

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for increasing a priority of a set of garbage collection threads.

21. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for decreasing a priority of a set of non-garbage collection threads.

22. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for paging out non-garbage collection threads.

23. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for paging out data areas associated with non-garbage collection threads.

24. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for paging in data areas previously or expected to be used by garbage collection threads.

25. The computer program product of claim 20 further comprising:

program code, stored on the computer recordable storage medium, responsive to detecting the garbage collection state, for assigning a processor to perform the garbage collection in a number of processors in a multi-processor data processing system.