<AWT Dev> Memory leaks due to static references in AWT & Swing

[Oleg Sukhodolsky]

On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 2:32 PM, Jaroslav Tulach <jtulach at netbeans.org> wrote:
>>## 20. 7. 2011 10:04:26 ##<
>> as far as I can see you suggest to replace strong references to
>> focusOwner, permanentFocusOwner, focusedWindow, and activeWindow to
>> weak ones.
>> But do you have test which can prove that any of these fields cause
>> real memory leak?
>
> Yes, I have a test. My whole motivation is to fix our tests. Here is one of
> them:
> http://hg.netbeans.org/ergonomics/file/f6cc96cf2c44/core.windows/test/unit/src/org/netbeans/core/windows/services/NbPresenterLeakTest.java
>
> It is not standalone however. If the precondition for accepting my change is
> to write a standalone test, I'll prepare one and wait until it fails.

it would be nice to see one.

>> As far as I know KFM is supposed to update these fields as soon as
>> focus state has been changed, thus if
>> you do have memory leak then it is a bug in KFM and your fix is just a
>> workaround for the problem.
>
> From a rational point of view, you are right. However my primary goal is to
> extinguish the problem. I don't oppose somebody seeking for the source of the
> problem, but meanwhile I'd rather see usage of weak references. It is easy to
> reason about such change and it is obvious it eliminates the GC problem in
> this case.
>
> Btw. KeyboardFocusManager is just one of the problems. If you look at
> http://hg.netbeans.org/ergonomics/file/d4208adce5f1/java.kit/test/qa-
> functional/src/org/netbeans/test/ide/WatchProjects.java#l125
> you'll find out that we used to have additional problems with
> sun.awt.im.InputContext, java.awt.Container,
> sun.awt.im.CompositionAreaHandler, sun.awt.X11.XKeyboardFocusManagerPeer
> All these classes would deserve weak reference, imho.

I agree that WeakReference is a nice/simple way to fix (workaround) a
lot of problems, but I always
prefer to use a hard way ;)

Oleg.

>
> -jt
>
>> On Wed, Jul 20, 2011 at 11:36 AM, Jaroslav Tulach <jtulach at netbeans.org>
> wrote:
>> > Hello.
>> > My name is Jaroslav Tulach and I working on NetBeans. Recently I started
>> > to fight with memory leaks by writing some automated tests to verify
>> > that some sequence of actions does not leave a memory behind.
>> >
>> > I think the tests are paying off, we managed to fix many leaks in
>> > NetBeans code. However now we are facing an unsolvable problem: there
>> > are some (temporary) leaks in AWT and Swing code which cause our tests
>> > to randomly fail.
>> >
>> > We tried to workaround the problem (by opening new unrelated windows, or
>> > using reflection to clean well known references), but so far our
>> > solutions are fragile and the test continue to fail in new, inventive
>> > ways (for example https://netbeans.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=197905).
>> >
>> > It would be much easier if we could eliminate the (temporary) memory
>> > leaks in AWT/Swing code. I am attaching a patch that uses WeakReference
>> > instead of strong one that would fix one of our failing test.
>> >
>> > What it would take to accept my patch? Thanks for your advice and help.
>> > -jt
>