Garbage collection, Operating System

Assignment Help:

The dynamic memory allocator is a layer between the application and the OS, managing heap objects. When a program requests memory from the allocator (via malloc(), for instance), the allocator will return a pointer (or reference) to a piece of memory of the appropriate size. When the program is done with the memory, the memory should be released back to the allocator. Languages such as C and C++ leave this job to the programmer to perform manually, for example by using free(). On the other hand, languages such as Java, python, etc automatically manage dynamically-allocated memory, which makes the programmer's life easier, and can eliminate entire classes of memory management bugs.

Although using free() and delete is relatively simple, it can be tricky to get them right. A signi?cant fraction of bugs in C and C++ programs are related to manual memory management. If we forget to free objects, we end up with memory leaks; if we free memory too soon, we end up with "dangling pointers"; also, we can try to do weird things, like performing double frees, etc. Therefore, a process that manages memory automatically is clearly useful. The most important concept for correctly implementing a garbage collector is that of live objects: a live object is any object that can still be reached through one (or more) pointers.


Related Discussions:- Garbage collection

What is segmentation?, What is segmentation? In a segmented memory mana...

What is segmentation? In a segmented memory management scheme a programmer views a program to be collection of program components called as segments. Every segment is a logical

What is a general graph, What is a general graph? A tree structure wher...

What is a general graph? A tree structure where links can go from one branch to a node earlier in the similar branch or other branch, allowing cycles.

What is multiprogramming?, What is multiprogramming? Multiprogramming: ...

What is multiprogramming? Multiprogramming: The management of many processes within a single processor system. Operating systems such like UNIX provide multiprogramming for sha

What is scheduler, What is scheduler? A process migrates among the vari...

What is scheduler? A process migrates among the various scheduling queues throughout its life time. The OS must choose processes from these queues in some fashion. This selecti

Explain second-chance algorithm, Second-Chance algorithm When a page ha...

Second-Chance algorithm When a page has been selected, we inspect its reference bit. If the value is 0, we proceed to replace this page. If the reference bit is set to 1, thoug

Explain about error detection method, Q. Explain about Error detection meth...

Q. Explain about Error detection method? Error detection: error can occur in CPU, in I/O devices or in memory hardware. Operating system constantly needs to be aware of possi

Tcp and ip stack, What does the last four digits '0010' of the above dump r...

What does the last four digits '0010' of the above dump represent? What action will the Destination node takes when it receives this packet? The last four digits '0010' denotes

Principles of operating systems, Objective - Tiny Shell (tish) In this...

Objective - Tiny Shell (tish) In this exercise you will write a small shell program to run different programs in foreground and background mode. Background Usually when

What is the drawbacks of contiguous allocation of disk space, What are the ...

What are the drawbacks of contiguous allocation of disk space? The disadvantages are a. Suffers from internal fragmentation b. Suffers from external fragmentation c. F

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd