PermGen Elimination project is promoting

[Jon Masamitsu]

We're expecting to promote hotspot with the perm gen elimination changes
into JDK8 this week.  The last webrev for initial integration into hotspot
is at

http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~coleenp/metadata8/

Basically this is the removal of the permanent generation and the use
of native memory for hotspot's representation of class metadata.

Generally speaking this change is invisible to the
Java application.  However, depending on the allocation
behavior, more Java heap may be used.  Also the
amount of native memory used for the class metadata may be
less than or more than the memory used previously by the
permanent generation.  Basically the message is that
you should not see any differences but then again you
may.

This change is in hsx 25 b2 and is expected to promote
into jdk8 b58.

These are some of the details.

     - Most allocations for the class metadata previously
done out of the permanent generation are now allocated
out of native memory. Some miscellaneous  data has
been moved to the Java heap.

     - The permanent generation has been removed. The
PermSize and  MaxPermSize are ignored and a warning is
issued if they are present on the command line.

     - The klasses that were used to described class
metadata have been  removed (klassKlass and it's derivatives).

     - By default class metadata allocation is only limited
by the  amount of available native memory. Use the new flag
MaxMetaspaceSize to limit the amount of  native memory used
for class metadata. It is analogous to MaxPermSize.

     - In 64bit VM when compressed oops are used a special
fixed size  space is used for classes to set a compressed
class pointer in object's header. The size  of that
class's space is controlled by ClassMetaspaceSize flag
with default value 2Mbytes.

     - A garbage collection may be induced to collect dead
classloaders  and classes. The first garbage collection
will be induced when the class metadata  usage reaches
MetaspaceSize (12Mbytes on the 32bit client VM and 16Mbytes
on the 32bit  server VM with larger sizes on the 64bit VM's).
Set MetaspaceSize to a higher value to delay the induced garbage
collections. After an induced garbage collection the
class metadata usage needed to induce the next garbage
collection may be  increased.

     - Whereas class metadata was previously garbage
collected as part of the permanent generation, without
the permanent generation the storage for class metadata
is explicitly managed. C-heap allocation is not used.

     - jstat counter names for metadata allocations
have not been  updated. The old permanent generation names
are still used but will be updated in the  near future.