-The garbage collector looks at a number of environment variables which are
-then used to affect its operation. These are examined only on Un*x-like
-platforms and win32.
+The garbage collector looks at a number of environment variables which are,
+then, used to affect its operation.
GC_INITIAL_HEAP_SIZE=<bytes> - Initial heap size in bytes. May speed up
- process start-up.
+ process start-up. Optionally, may be
+ specified with a multiplier ('k', 'M' or 'G')
+ suffix.
-GC_MAXIMUM_HEAP_SIZE=<bytes> - Maximum collected heap size.
+GC_MAXIMUM_HEAP_SIZE=<bytes> - Maximum collected heap size. Allows
+ a multiplier suffix.
GC_LOOP_ON_ABORT - Causes the collector abort routine to enter a tight loop.
This may make it easier to debug, such a process, especially
- for multithreaded platforms that don't produce usable core
+ for multi-threaded platforms that don't produce usable core
files, or if a core file would be too large. On some
platforms, this also causes SIGSEGV to be caught and
result in an infinite loop in a handler, allowing
if you have a bug to report, but please include only the
last complete dump.
-GC_BACKTRACES=<n> - Generate n random backtraces (for heap profiling) after
+GC_BACKTRACES=<n> - Generate n random back-traces (for heap profiling) after
each GC. Collector must have been built with
KEEP_BACK_PTRS. This won't generate useful output unless
most objects in the heap were allocated through debug
descriptor generation problems, and possibly for
temporarily working around such problems. It forces a
fully conservative scan of all heap objects except
- those known to be pointerfree, and may thus have other
+ those known to be pointer-free, and may thus have other
adverse effects.
GC_PRINT_BACK_HEIGHT - Print max length of chain through unreachable objects
GC_ENABLE_INCREMENTAL - Turn on incremental collection at startup. Note that,
depending on platform and collector configuration, this
may involve write protecting pieces of the heap to
- track modifications. These pieces may include pointerfree
- objects or not. Although this is intended to be
- transparent, it may cause unintended system call failures.
- Use with caution.
+ track modifications. These pieces may include
+ pointer-free objects or not. Although this is intended
+ to be transparent, it may cause unintended system call
+ failures. Use with caution.
GC_PAUSE_TIME_TARGET - Set the desired garbage collector pause time in msecs.
This only has an effect if incremental collection is