JEP 248: Make G1 the Default Garbage Collector

[charlie hunt]

Wanted to come back to this thread, continue the dialog, reiterate the objective, (try to) summarize the concerns and put forth a potential plan for this JEP going forward.

Intent: Use G1 GC as the default collector chosen by the JVM when no GC is explicitly set at the JVM command line.

Points to consider:
- No new feature capabilities are being added or removed. Anyone who wants to use a particular GC can use his or her favorite GC.
- Potential impact, (positive or negative), is limited to those Java apps that do not specify a GC at the JVM command line.
  . No impact to any app using CMS GC
  . No impact to any app explicitly specifying Parallel GC
  . No impact to any app using Serial GC 
  . No impact to any app using G1 GC
- G1 by design offers an improved mix, or balance of GC performance (throughput, latency and footprint) over Parallel GC which was designed to be a throughput collector.
- G1 ongoing enhancements will continue in JDK 9 through Dec 10, 2015, with bug fixes through April 21, 2016 [1].
- There are, and will be G1 enhancements in JDK 9, that are not, and may not be back ported to a JDK 8 update release.
  . It is possible should a G1 issue surface in JDK 8, it may be addressed via an enhancement in JDK 9.

Concerns mentioned:
- Is G1 mature enough to make the default collector?
  * Observations and experiences, (both positive and negative) ranging from pre-production support of G1 (pre JDK 7u4) through JDK 8u45.
  ** Mention of potential G1 corrupting indexes in Lucene, bug report [2]. Dawid Weiss, a committer to Lucene, mentioned the issue is very hard to reproduce and pinpoint. More info on this below. [2]
- Should ergonomics be enhanced to better support the selection of a default GC?

Suggested plan for moving forward:
- Make G1 the default collector in JDK 9, continue to evaluate G1 and enhance G1 in JDK 9
- Mitigate risk by reverting back to Parallel GC before JDK 9 goes “Generally Available” (Sept 22, 2016 [1]) if warranted by continuing to monitor observations and experiences with G1 in both JDK 9 pre-releases and latest JDK 8 update releases
- Address enhancing ergonomics for selecting a default GC as a separate JEP if future observations suggests its needed

Comments?

thanks,

charlie
 
[1]: http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk9/ <http://openjdk.java.net/projects/jdk9/>
[2]: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8038348 <https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8038348>
Dawid Weiss and Vladimir Kozlov (HotSpot JIT compiler committer) have tried multiple times to reproduce to capture additional information without success. Based on the bug report, the issue was found in a 32-bit Windows JDK 7u25, seems to be limited to 32-bit platforms, perhaps only Windows? Current reaction from Dawid and Vladimir it is a heisenbug, (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heisenbug>). Both Dawid and Vladimir will continue to monitor the situation.