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

[David Holmes]

On Thu, 18 Nov 2021 05:20:02 GMT, Stuart Marks <smarks at openjdk.org> wrote:

>> src/java.base/share/classes/java/lang/ref/Finalizer.java line 195:
>> 
>>> 193: 
>>> 194:     static {
>>> 195:         if (Holder.ENABLED) {
>> 
>> Hello Stuart,
>> My understanding of the the lazy `Holder` is that it's there to delay the static initialization of the code that's part of the `Holder`. In this case here, the `Holder` is being used right within the `static` block of the `Finalizer` class, that too as the first thing. In this case, is that `Holder` class necessary?
>
> Huh, good catch! This was mostly left over from an earlier version of the flag that used system properties, which aren't initialized until after the Finalizer class is initialized.
> 
> It might be the case that the Holder can be removed at this point, since the finalization-enabled bit is no longer in a system property and is in a native class member that should be available before the VM is started.
> 
> I say "might" though because this occurs early in system startup, and weird things potentially happen. For example, suppose the first object with a finalizer is created before the Finalizer class is initialized. The VM will perform an upcall to Finalizer::register. An ordinary call to a static method will ensure the class is initialized before proceeding with the call, but this VM upcall is a special case.... I'll have to investigate this some more.

@stuart-marks not sure I see how anything is different here compared to the existing logic. The `Finalizer` class is explicitly initialized quite early in the init process, but if a preceding class's initialization created an object with a finalizer then that same upcall would be involved.

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