RFR: JDK-8276422 Add command-line option to disable finalization [v2]

[Alan Bateman]

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 07:44:05 GMT, Aleksey Shipilev <shade at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> @shipilev not sure what you mean by  "a flag on the Java side". The Java code just queries the VM for the finalization enabled/disabled state and uses that to control things.
>
> Yeah, "flag" is `Holder.ENABLED` here. I mean, are Java methods `registerFinalizer` and `runFinalization` called only by VM? If so, can VM check the whole thing on VM side, without going to Java and asking back from there?

I think @shipilev asks a good question. This could be done completely in the VM without the changes to j.l.ref.Finalizer. The CLI option is for experimenting, at least in the short term, and should be benign to have the Finalizer thread running, it just won't do anything.

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PR: https://git.openjdk.java.net/jdk/pull/6442