[OT] a simple garbage collection question

On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 7:57 AM, Sciss <contact@sciss.de> wrote:

hi,

this is a bit OT as it's a generic java VM question i guess.... but maybe someone smart can answer it quickly.

if i have this

class Test {
       private val anoObject = new AnyRef
}

val x = new Test

is anoObject threatened to be garbage collected while i still have references to x?

No.  Because x references anoObject, as long as there's a reference to x or anoObject, anoObject will not be GCed.
 

i.e. does the VM "know" that anoObject is unreachable? do i need to make it's scope 'protected' to save it from garbage collection?

thanks, -sciss-

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thanks!

Am 15.03.2010 um 16:00 schrieb David Pollak:

>
>
> On Mon, Mar 15, 2010 at 7:57 AM, Sciss wrote:
> hi,
>
> this is a bit OT as it's a generic java VM question i guess.... but maybe someone smart can answer it quickly.
>
> if i have this
>
> class Test {
> private val anoObject = new AnyRef
> }
>
> val x = new Test
>
> is anoObject threatened to be garbage collected while i still have references to x?
>
> No. Because x references anoObject, as long as there's a reference to x or anoObject, anoObject will not be GCed.
>
> i.e. does the VM "know" that anoObject is unreachable? do i need to make it's scope 'protected' to save it from garbage collection?
>
> thanks, -sciss-
>
>
>
>