Patent ID: 7831640
Filing Date: 2010-11-09
Classification: G06F

Abstract:
1. In a computing environment including application code that implements garbage collection functionality, wherein the garbage collection functionality includes pushing object references onto a mark stack, such that objects referenced on the mark stack can be marked so as to prevent memory for the objects from being recycled for use with other objects instances, a method of handling overflows of a mark stack, the method comprising: (a) accessing a reference to an object from either a root, a mark stack or from an overflow list; (b) processing the object by attempting to enumerate references to other objects from the object onto the mark stack, the mark stack being configured to allow for marking of objects placed on the marked stack to prevent memory for the objects from being reclaimed for other objects; (c) detecting an overflow condition of the mark stack for the referenced object, where the overflow condition exists if enumerating references from the referenced object to other objects would exceed remaining mark stack capacity; (d) placing a reference to the referenced object on the overflow list; (e) after placing the reference to the referenced object on the overflow list, processing objects in the mark stack; and (f) after processing all objects in the mark stack, thus clearing the mark stack, then processing references from the overflow list as recited in (b).