RFR(S): 8068579: Running with -XX:-UseParallelGC does not turn ParalleGC off

[Jon Masamitsu]

On 3/22/2016 12:37 AM, Per Liden wrote:
> Hi Jon,
>
> On 2016-03-21 21:53, Jon Masamitsu wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 03/18/2016 03:12 PM, Per Liden wrote:
>>> Hi Jon,
>>>
>>>> On 18 Mar 2016, at 19:00, Jon Masamitsu <jon.masamitsu at oracle.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Per,
>>>>
>>>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~pliden/8068579/webrev.1/src/share/vm/runtime/arguments.cpp.frames.html 
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>> Why the change to make UseSerialGC as ergonomically selected?
>>>>
>>>> 1856 FLAG_SET_ERGO_IF_DEFAULT(bool, UseSerialGC, true);
>>> This is to have a consistent way of selecting GC across all VM
>>> variants. We end up in this code when the user didn’t specify any GC,
>>> so the VM selects one based on various rules. The selection of
>>> SerialGC here is not really special or different from the other cases,
>>> it just happens to be the outcome of a very simple rule in minimal VMs.
>>
>> I didn't ask the question correctly.  You used 
>> FLAG_SET_ERGO_IF_DEFAULT()
>> instead of (I think) FLAG_SET_DEFAULT().  Why did you want to add the
>> "ERGO" attribute to the setting?
>
> My reply above tried to answer this, but let's me rephrase and hope it 
> becomes more clear.
>
> Before this change, unless a GC was specified on the command-line the 
> VM ergonomically select a GC using FLAG_SET_ERGO. There was however 
> one exception to this, a minimal VM selected the SerialGC using 
> FLAG_SET_DEFAULT. The change to also use FLAGS_SET_ERGO in minimal VMs 
> is an attempt to make the way we select GC consistent across all VM 
> variants. I.e. whenever the VM selects the GC for you we always use 
> FLAG_SET_ERGO instead of like before where we sometimes use 
> FLAG_SET_ERGO and sometimes FLAG_SET_DEFAULT. After all, ERGO means 
> (to me at least) the VM made a decision for me.
>
> I hope this helps.

Ok.  I get it this time.

Saying ERGO made a decision in the case of the minimal VM seems to me
to say too much.  It says that the VM made a decision when there really
wasn't a decision to be made - the only choice is the SerialGC.  I don't 
object
to the change integrating as if but it would be simpler in my mind to leave
it as FLAG_SET_DEFAULT.

Jon

>
> cheers,
> Per
>
>>
>> Jon
>>
>>>
>>> cheers,
>>> Per
>>>
>>>> Jon
>>>>
>>>> On 3/17/2016 6:36 AM, Per Liden wrote:
>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>
>>>>> On 2016-03-16 09:12, Per Liden wrote:
>>>>>> Hi Dima,
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 2016-03-15 17:38, Dmitry Fazunenko wrote:
>>>>>>> Hi Per,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> A couple of comments:
>>>>>>> 1) globals_extension.hpp.frames.html
>>>>>>> requires copyright update
>>>>>>> 2) such fix should go with a regression test, it could be done
>>>>>>> separately.
>>>>>> Good point. I was about to add a test for this just now and realized
>>>>>> that the new semantics is not kept for minimal VMs (i.e. when
>>>>>> INCLUDE_ALL_GCS==0). I'll rework the patch a bit to have the same
>>>>>> semantics also on minimal VMs. New webrev coming.
>>>>> Here's an updated webrev. The new semantics is now available on all
>>>>> VMs (including minimal). I also added a new test for this.
>>>>>
>>>>> This change also removes UNSUPPORTED_GC_OPTION() and instead reuses
>>>>> the existing UNSUPPORTED_OPTION(), which I tweaked slightly to make
>>>>> the output more consistent across the code base. This in turn meant
>>>>> that I needed to adjust some other tests.
>>>>>
>>>>> http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~pliden/8068579/webrev.1/
>>>>>
>>>>> Testing: jprt, manual
>>>>>
>>>>> thanks,
>>>>> Per
>>>>>
>>>>>> thanks,
>>>>>> Per
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Thanks,
>>>>>>> Dima
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> On 15.03.2016 16:48, Per Liden wrote:
>>>>>>>> Summary: Explicitly disabling the default collector, without
>>>>>>>> specifying another collector, will silently re-enable the default
>>>>>>>> collector. This is a bit counter intuitive. A better approach
>>>>>>>> would be
>>>>>>>> for the VM to complain about the situation.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Bug: https://bugs.openjdk.java.net/browse/JDK-8068579
>>>>>>>> Webrev: http://cr.openjdk.java.net/~pliden/8068579/webrev.0/
>>>>>>>> Testing: manual, jprt
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Example (assuming it's a platform/configuration with G1 as 
>>>>>>>> default):
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> $ java -XX:-UseG1GC ...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> Today, the above command will happily start a VM with G1 enabled.
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> With this patch the VM will instead complain, like this:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> $ java -XX:-UseG1GC ...
>>>>>>>> Error occurred during initialization of VM
>>>>>>>> Garbage collector not selected (default collector explicitly
>>>>>>>> disabled)
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> And of course, we're good with disabling the default collector as
>>>>>>>> long
>>>>>>>> as you specify some other collector, e.g.:
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> $ java -XX:-UseG1GC -XX:+UseParallelGC ...
>>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>> cheers,
>>>>>>>> Per
>>