CODEWITHSUNDEEP
javaspringdependency-injectiongarbage-collection
artjomka
artjomka

Reputation: 1229

Garbage collection clean object with spring bean as property

Hypothetically there is a code

actionService.processAction(new HelloWorldAction("Hello world", helloWorldRepository))

Where helloWorldRepository is Spring bean.

Will garbage collector some-when clean that HelloWorldAction object or because this object have reference to helloWorldRepository it will live forever in JVM and its better to use WeakReference if I want to avoid this situation?

Thanks.

Upvotes: 0

Views: 1255

Answers (3)

JB Nizet
JB Nizet

Reputation: 691635

A short-lived object has a reference to a long-lived object. That causes no problem: the short-lived object, when it's not reachable anymore, can be garbage collected. And it should quickly become unreachable if nothing has a reference to it.

There would be a problem if a long-lived object kept references to short-lived objects. Then the short-lived objects wouln't be GCed.

Upvotes: 3

Dirk
Dirk

Reputation: 31053

An object is not kept alive simply because it holds a reference to some other object (with a different lifetime). It's just the other way around: your HelloWorldAction will keep the helloWorldRepository object alive, i.e., all objects being referenced by HelloWorldAction will live at least as long as the HelloWorldAction instance, but if the last reference to the HelloWorldAction instance goes out of scope, it becomes eligible for garbage collection, regardless of the references, it itself holds.

Upvotes: 1

Keerthivasan
Keerthivasan

Reputation: 12880

Instance of HelloWorldAction is eligible for garbage collection when it is totally unreferenced. i.e. you don't have any reference to get it back. So, As a rule, when you want to make it eligible for garbage collection, remove all references to it. There shouldn't be any reference pointing to it

Upvotes: 1

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