java - launch a Java application
SynopsisTo launch a class file:
java
[options] mainclass [args ...]
To launch the main class in a JAR file:
java
[options] -jar
jarfile [args ...]
To launch the main class in a module:
java
[options] -m
module[/
mainclass] [args ...]
or
java
[options] --module
module[/
mainclass] [args ...]
To launch a single source-file program:
java
[options] source-file [args ...]
classname
are the arguments for the main method.
-jar
jarfile
Main-Class:
classname that defines the class with the public static void main(String[] args)
method that serves as your application's starting point. When you use -jar
, the specified JAR file is the source of all user classes, and other class path settings are ignored. If you're using JAR files, then see jar.
-m
or --module
module[/
mainclass]
Executes the main class in a module specified by mainclass if it is given, or, if it is not given, the value in the module. In other words, mainclass can be used when it is not specified by the module, or to override the value when it is specified.
-jar
jarfile, and -m
or --module
module/
mainclass are passed as arguments to the main class.
The java
command starts a Java application. It does this by starting the Java Virtual Machine (JVM), loading the specified class, and calling that class's main()
method. The method must be declared public
and static
, it must not return any value, and it must accept a String
array as a parameter. The method declaration has the following form:
public static void main(String[] args)
In source-file mode, the java
command can launch a class declared in a source file. See Using Source-File Mode to Launch Single-File Source-Code Programs for a description of using the source-file mode.
Note: You can use the
JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
launcher environment variable to prepend its content to the actual command line of thejava
launcher. See Using the JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS Launcher Environment Variable.
By default, the first argument that isn't an option of the java
command is the fully qualified name of the class to be called. If -jar
is specified, then its argument is the name of the JAR file containing class and resource files for the application. The startup class must be indicated by the Main-Class
manifest header in its manifest file.
Arguments after the class file name or the JAR file name are passed to the main()
method.
javaw
Windows: The javaw
command is identical to java
, except that with javaw
there's no associated console window. Use javaw
when you don't want a command prompt window to appear. The javaw
launcher will, however, display a dialog box with error information if a launch fails.
To launch a class declared in a source file, run the java
launcher in source-file mode. Entering source-file mode is determined by two items on the java
command line:
The first item on the command line that is not an option or part of an option. In other words, the item in the command line that would otherwise be the main class name.
The --source
version option, if present.
If the class identifies an existing file that has a .java
extension, or if the --source
option is specified, then source-file mode is selected. The source file is then compiled and run. The --source
option can be used to specify the source version or N of the source code. This determines the API that can be used. When you set --source
N, you can only use the public API that was defined in JDK N.
Note: The valid values of N change for each release, with new values added and old values removed. You'll get an error message if you use a value of N that is no longer supported. The supported values of N are the current Java SE release (
17
) and a limited number of previous releases, detailed in the command-line help forjavac
, under the--source
and--release
options.
If the file does not have the .java
extension, the --source
option must be used to tell the java
command to use the source-file mode. The --source
option is used for cases when the source file is a "script" to be executed and the name of the source file does not follow the normal naming conventions for Java source files.
In source-file mode, the effect is as though the source file is compiled into memory, and the first class found in the source file is executed. Any arguments placed after the name of the source file in the original command line are passed to the compiled class when it is executed.
For example, if a file were named HelloWorld.java
and contained a class named hello.World
, then the source-file mode command to launch the class would be:
java HelloWorld.java
The example illustrates that the class can be in a named package, and does not need to be in the unnamed package. This use of source-file mode is informally equivalent to using the following two commands where hello.World
is the name of the class in the package:
javac -d <memory> HelloWorld.java
java -cp <memory> hello.World
In source-file mode, any additional command-line options are processed as follows:
The launcher scans the options specified before the source file for any that are relevant in order to compile the source file.
This includes: --class-path
, --module-path
, --add-exports
, --add-modules
, --limit-modules
, --patch-module
, --upgrade-module-path
, and any variant forms of those options. It also includes the new --enable-preview
option, described in JEP 12.
No provision is made to pass any additional options to the compiler, such as -processor
or -Werror
.
Command-line argument files (@
-files) may be used in the standard way. Long lists of arguments for either the VM or the program being invoked may be placed in files specified on the command-line by prefixing the filename with an @
character.
In source-file mode, compilation proceeds as follows:
Any command-line options that are relevant to the compilation environment are taken into account.
No other source files are found and compiled, as if the source path is set to an empty value.
Annotation processing is disabled, as if -proc:none
is in effect.
If a version is specified, via the --source
option, the value is used as the argument for an implicit --release
option for the compilation. This sets both the source version accepted by compiler and the system API that may be used by the code in the source file.
The source file is compiled in the context of an unnamed module.
The source file should contain one or more top-level classes, the first of which is taken as the class to be executed.
The compiler does not enforce the optional restriction defined at the end of JLS ??7.6, that a type in a named package should exist in a file whose name is composed from the type name followed by the .java
extension.
If the source file contains errors, appropriate error messages are written to the standard error stream, and the launcher exits with a non-zero exit code.
In source-file mode, execution proceeds as follows:
The class to be executed is the first top-level class found in the source file. It must contain a declaration of the standard public static void main(String[])
method.
The compiled classes are loaded by a custom class loader, that delegates to the application class loader. This implies that classes appearing on the application class path cannot refer to any classes declared in the source file.
The compiled classes are executed in the context of an unnamed module, as though --add-modules=ALL-DEFAULT
is in effect. This is in addition to any other --add-module
options that may be have been specified on the command line.
Any arguments appearing after the name of the file on the command line are passed to the standard main method in the obvious way.
It is an error if there is a class on the application class path whose name is the same as that of the class to be executed.
See JEP 330: Launch Single-File Source-Code Programs for complete details.
Using the JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS Launcher Environment VariableJDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
prepends its content to the options parsed from the command line. The content of the JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
environment variable is a list of arguments separated by white-space characters (as determined by isspace()
). These are prepended to the command line arguments passed to java
launcher. The encoding requirement for the environment variable is the same as the java
command line on the system. JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
environment variable content is treated in the same manner as that specified in the command line.
Single ('
) or double ("
) quotes can be used to enclose arguments that contain whitespace characters. All content between the open quote and the first matching close quote are preserved by simply removing the pair of quotes. In case a matching quote is not found, the launcher will abort with an error message. @
-files are supported as they are specified in the command line. However, as in @
-files, use of a wildcard is not supported. In order to mitigate potential misuse of JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
behavior, options that specify the main class (such as -jar
) or cause the java
launcher to exit without executing the main class (such as -h
) are disallowed in the environment variable. If any of these options appear in the environment variable, the launcher will abort with an error message. When JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS
is set, the launcher prints a message to stderr as a reminder.
Example:
$ export JDK_JAVA_OPTIONS='-g @file1 -Dprop=value @file2 -Dws.prop="white spaces"'
$ java -Xint @file3
is equivalent to the command line:
java -g @file1 -Dprop=value @file2 -Dws.prop="white spaces" -Xint @file3
Overview of Java Options
The java
command supports a wide range of options in the following categories:
Standard Options for Java: Options guaranteed to be supported by all implementations of the Java Virtual Machine (JVM). They're used for common actions, such as checking the version of the JRE, setting the class path, enabling verbose output, and so on.
Extra Options for Java: General purpose options that are specific to the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine. They aren't guaranteed to be supported by all JVM implementations, and are subject to change. These options start with -X
.
The advanced options aren't recommended for casual use. These are developer options used for tuning specific areas of the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine operation that often have specific system requirements and may require privileged access to system configuration parameters. Several examples of performance tuning are provided in Performance Tuning Examples. These options aren't guaranteed to be supported by all JVM implementations and are subject to change. Advanced options start with -XX
.
Advanced Runtime Options for Java: Control the runtime behavior of the Java HotSpot VM.
Advanced JIT Compiler Options for java: Control the dynamic just-in-time (JIT) compilation performed by the Java HotSpot VM.
Advanced Serviceability Options for Java: Enable gathering system information and performing extensive debugging.
Advanced Garbage Collection Options for Java: Control how garbage collection (GC) is performed by the Java HotSpot
Boolean options are used to either enable a feature that's disabled by default or disable a feature that's enabled by default. Such options don't require a parameter. Boolean -XX
options are enabled using the plus sign (-XX:+
OptionName) and disabled using the minus sign (-XX:-
OptionName).
For options that require an argument, the argument may be separated from the option name by a space, a colon (:), or an equal sign (=), or the argument may directly follow the option (the exact syntax differs for each option). If you're expected to specify the size in bytes, then you can use no suffix, or use the suffix k
or K
for kilobytes (KB), m
or M
for megabytes (MB), or g
or G
for gigabytes (GB). For example, to set the size to 8 GB, you can specify either 8g
, 8192m
, 8388608k
, or 8589934592
as the argument. If you are expected to specify the percentage, then use a number from 0 to 1. For example, specify 0.25
for 25%.
The following sections describe the options that are obsolete, deprecated, and removed:
Deprecated Java Options: Accepted and acted upon --- a warning is issued when they're used.
Obsolete Java Options: Accepted but ignored --- a warning is issued when they're used.
Removed Java Options: Removed --- using them results in an error.
These are the most commonly used options supported by all implementations of the JVM.
Note: To specify an argument for a long option, you can use either
--
name=
value or--
name value.
-agentlib:
libname[=
options]
Loads the specified native agent library. After the library name, a comma-separated list of options specific to the library can be used.
Linux and macOS: If the option -agentlib:foo
is specified, then the JVM attempts to load the library named libfoo.so
in the location specified by the LD_LIBRARY_PATH
system variable (on macOS this variable is DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH
).
Windows: If the option -agentlib:foo
is specified, then the JVM attempts to load the library named foo.dll
in the location specified by the PATH
system variable.
The following example shows how to load the Java Debug Wire Protocol (JDWP) library and listen for the socket connection on port 8000, suspending the JVM before the main class loads:
-agentlib:jdwp=transport=dt_socket,server=y,address=8000
-agentpath:
pathname[=
options]
-agentlib
but uses the full path and file name of the library.
--class-path
classpath, -classpath
classpath, or -cp
classpath
A semicolon (;
) separated list of directories, JAR archives, and ZIP archives to search for class files.
Specifying classpath overrides any setting of the CLASSPATH
environment variable. If the class path option isn't used and classpath isn't set, then the user class path consists of the current directory (.).
As a special convenience, a class path element that contains a base name of an asterisk (*) is considered equivalent to specifying a list of all the files in the directory with the extension .jar
or .JAR
. A Java program can't tell the difference between the two invocations. For example, if the directory mydir contains a.jar
and b.JAR
, then the class path element mydir/* is expanded to A.jar:b.JAR
, except that the order of JAR files is unspecified. All .jar
files in the specified directory, even hidden ones, are included in the list. A class path entry consisting of an asterisk (*) expands to a list of all the jar files in the current directory. The CLASSPATH
environment variable, where defined, is similarly expanded. Any class path wildcard expansion that occurs before the Java VM is started. Java programs never see wildcards that aren't expanded except by querying the environment, such as by calling System.getenv("CLASSPATH")
.
--disable-@files
@filename
expansion. This option stops expanding @
-argfiles after the option.
--enable-preview
--module-path
modulepath... or -p
modulepath
;
) separated list of directories in which each directory is a directory of modules.
--upgrade-module-path
modulepath...
;
) separated list of directories in which each directory is a directory of modules that replace upgradeable modules in the runtime image.
--add-modules
module[,
module...]
ALL-DEFAULT
, ALL-SYSTEM
, and ALL-MODULE-PATH
.
--list-modules
-d
module_name or --describe-module
module_name
--dry-run
--dry-run
option might be useful for validating the command-line options such as the module system configuration.
--validate-modules
-D
property=
value
-Dfoo="foo bar"
).
-disableassertions
[:
[packagename]...|:
classname] or -da
[:
[packagename]...|:
classname]
Disables assertions. By default, assertions are disabled in all packages and classes. With no arguments, -disableassertions
(-da
) disables assertions in all packages and classes. With the packagename argument ending in ...
, the switch disables assertions in the specified package and any subpackages. If the argument is simply ...
, then the switch disables assertions in the unnamed package in the current working directory. With the classname argument, the switch disables assertions in the specified class.
The -disableassertions
(-da
) option applies to all class loaders and to system classes (which don't have a class loader). There's one exception to this rule: If the option is provided with no arguments, then it doesn't apply to system classes. This makes it easy to disable assertions in all classes except for system classes. The -disablesystemassertions
option enables you to disable assertions in all system classes. To explicitly enable assertions in specific packages or classes, use the -enableassertions
(-ea
) option. Both options can be used at the same time. For example, to run the MyClass
application with assertions enabled in the package com.wombat.fruitbat
(and any subpackages) but disabled in the class com.wombat.fruitbat.Brickbat
, use the following command:
java -ea:com.wombat.fruitbat... -da:com.wombat.fruitbat.Brickbat MyClass
-disablesystemassertions
or -dsa
-enableassertions
[:
[packagename]...|:
classname] or -ea
[:
[packagename]...|:
classname]
Enables assertions. By default, assertions are disabled in all packages and classes. With no arguments, -enableassertions
(-ea
) enables assertions in all packages and classes. With the packagename argument ending in ...
, the switch enables assertions in the specified package and any subpackages. If the argument is simply ...
, then the switch enables assertions in the unnamed package in the current working directory. With the classname argument, the switch enables assertions in the specified class.
The -enableassertions
(-ea
) option applies to all class loaders and to system classes (which don't have a class loader). There's one exception to this rule: If the option is provided with no arguments, then it doesn't apply to system classes. This makes it easy to enable assertions in all classes except for system classes. The -enablesystemassertions
option provides a separate switch to enable assertions in all system classes. To explicitly disable assertions in specific packages or classes, use the -disableassertions
(-da
) option. If a single command contains multiple instances of these switches, then they're processed in order, before loading any classes. For example, to run the MyClass
application with assertions enabled only in the package com.wombat.fruitbat
(and any subpackages) but disabled in the class com.wombat.fruitbat.Brickbat
, use the following command:
java -ea:com.wombat.fruitbat... -da:com.wombat.fruitbat.Brickbat MyClass
-enablesystemassertions
or -esa
-help
, -h
, or -?
--help
-javaagent:
jarpath[=
options]
java.lang.instrument
.
--show-version
-showversion
--show-module-resolution
-splash:
imagepath
Shows the splash screen with the image specified by imagepath. HiDPI scaled images are automatically supported and used if available. The unscaled image file name, such as image.ext
, should always be passed as the argument to the -splash
option. The most appropriate scaled image provided is picked up automatically.
For example, to show the splash.gif
file from the images
directory when starting your application, use the following option:
-splash:images/splash.gif
See the SplashScreen API documentation for more information.
-verbose:class
-verbose:gc
-verbose:jni
-verbose:module
--version
-version
-X
--help-extra
@
argfile
Specifies one or more argument files prefixed by @
used by the java
command. It isn't uncommon for the java
command line to be very long because of the .jar
files needed in the classpath. The @
argfile option overcomes command-line length limitations by enabling the launcher to expand the contents of argument files after shell expansion, but before argument processing. Contents in the argument files are expanded because otherwise, they would be specified on the command line until the --disable-@files
option was encountered.
The argument files can also contain the main class name and all options. If an argument file contains all of the options required by the java
command, then the command line could simply be:
java @
argfile
See java Command-Line Argument Files for a description and examples of using @
-argfiles.
The following java
options are general purpose options that are specific to the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine.
-Xbatch
-Xbatch
flag disables background compilation so that compilation of all methods proceeds as a foreground task until completed. This option is equivalent to -XX:-BackgroundCompilation
.
-Xbootclasspath/a:
directories|zip|JAR-files
Specifies a list of directories, JAR files, and ZIP archives to append to the end of the default bootstrap class path.
Linux and macOS: Colons (:
) separate entities in this list.
Windows: Semicolons (;
) separate entities in this list.
-Xcheck:jni
Performs additional checks for Java Native Interface (JNI) functions.
The following checks are considered indicative of significant problems with the native code, and the JVM terminates with an irrecoverable error in such cases:
JNIEnv
belonging to another thread.jfieldID
, or jmethodID
, is detected as being invalid. For example:
ReleaseXXX
function on a parameter not produced by the corresponding GetXXX
functionThe following checks only result in warnings being printed:
EnsureLocalcapacity
function.Lname;
) when it should not be.NULL
parameter is allowed, but its use is questionable.Get/ReleasePrimitiveArrayCritical
or Get/ReleaseStringCritical
Expect a performance degradation when this option is used.
-Xdebug
-Xdiag
-Xint
-Xinternalversion
-version
option, and then exits.
-Xlog:
option
-Xmixed
-Xint
to switch off.
-Xmn
size
Sets the initial and maximum size (in bytes) of the heap for the young generation (nursery) in the generational collectors. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The young generation region of the heap is used for new objects. GC is performed in this region more often than in other regions. If the size for the young generation is too small, then a lot of minor garbage collections are performed. If the size is too large, then only full garbage collections are performed, which can take a long time to complete. It is recommended that you do not set the size for the young generation for the G1 collector, and keep the size for the young generation greater than 25% and less than 50% of the overall heap size for other collectors. The following examples show how to set the initial and maximum size of young generation to 256 MB using various units:
-Xmn256m
-Xmn262144k
-Xmn268435456
Instead of the -Xmn
option to set both the initial and maximum size of the heap for the young generation, you can use -XX:NewSize
to set the initial size and -XX:MaxNewSize
to set the maximum size.
-Xms
size
Sets the minimum and the initial size (in bytes) of the heap. This value must be a multiple of 1024 and greater than 1 MB. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The following examples show how to set the size of allocated memory to 6 MB using various units:
-Xms6291456
-Xms6144k
-Xms6m
If you do not set this option, then the initial size will be set as the sum of the sizes allocated for the old generation and the young generation. The initial size of the heap for the young generation can be set using the -Xmn
option or the -XX:NewSize
option.
Note that the -XX:InitalHeapSize
option can also be used to set the initial heap size. If it appears after -Xms
on the command line, then the initial heap size gets set to the value specified with -XX:InitalHeapSize
.
-Xmx
size
Specifies the maximum size (in bytes) of the heap. This value must be a multiple of 1024 and greater than 2 MB. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value is chosen at runtime based on system configuration. For server deployments, -Xms
and -Xmx
are often set to the same value. The following examples show how to set the maximum allowed size of allocated memory to 80 MB using various units:
-Xmx83886080
-Xmx81920k
-Xmx80m
The -Xmx
option is equivalent to -XX:MaxHeapSize
.
-Xnoclassgc
-Xnoclassgc
at startup, the class objects in the application are left untouched during GC and are always be considered live. This can result in more memory being permanently occupied which, if not used carefully, throws an out-of-memory exception.
-Xrs
Reduces the use of operating system signals by the JVM. Shutdown hooks enable the orderly shutdown of a Java application by running user cleanup code (such as closing database connections) at shutdown, even if the JVM terminates abruptly.
Linux and macOS:
The JVM catches signals to implement shutdown hooks for unexpected termination. The JVM uses SIGHUP
, SIGINT
, and SIGTERM
to initiate the running of shutdown hooks.
Applications embedding the JVM frequently need to trap signals such as SIGINT
or SIGTERM
, which can lead to interference with the JVM signal handlers. The -Xrs
option is available to address this issue. When -Xrs
is used, the signal masks for SIGINT
, SIGTERM
, SIGHUP
, and SIGQUIT
aren't changed by the JVM, and signal handlers for these signals aren't installed.
Windows:
The JVM watches for console control events to implement shutdown hooks for unexpected termination. Specifically, the JVM registers a console control handler that begins shutdown-hook processing and returns TRUE
for CTRL_C_EVENT
, CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT
, CTRL_LOGOFF_EVENT
, and CTRL_SHUTDOWN_EVENT
.
The JVM uses a similar mechanism to implement the feature of dumping thread stacks for debugging purposes. The JVM uses CTRL_BREAK_EVENT
to perform thread dumps.
If the JVM is run as a service (for example, as a servlet engine for a web server), then it can receive CTRL_LOGOFF_EVENT
but shouldn't initiate shutdown because the operating system doesn't actually terminate the process. To avoid possible interference such as this, the -Xrs
option can be used. When the -Xrs
option is used, the JVM doesn't install a console control handler, implying that it doesn't watch for or process CTRL_C_EVENT
, CTRL_CLOSE_EVENT
, CTRL_LOGOFF_EVENT
, or CTRL_SHUTDOWN_EVENT
.
There are two consequences of specifying -Xrs
:
Linux and macOS: SIGQUIT
thread dumps aren't available.
Windows: Ctrl + Break thread dumps aren't available.
User code is responsible for causing shutdown hooks to run, for example, by calling the System.exit()
when the JVM is to be terminated.
-Xshare:
mode
Sets the class data sharing (CDS) mode.
Possible mode arguments for this option include the following:
auto
on
Note: The
-Xshare:on
option is used for testing purposes only. It may cause the VM to unexpectedly exit during start-up when the CDS archive cannot be used (for example, when certain VM parameters are changed, or when a different JDK is used). This option should not be used in production environments.
off
-XshowSettings
-XshowSettings:
category
Shows settings and continues. Possible category arguments for this option include the following:
all
locale
properties
vm
system
-Xss
size
Sets the thread stack size (in bytes). Append the letter k
or K
to indicate KB, m
or M
to indicate MB, or g
or G
to indicate GB. The default value depends on the platform:
Linux/x64 (64-bit): 1024 KB
macOS (64-bit): 1024 KB
Windows: The default value depends on virtual memory
The following examples set the thread stack size to 1024 KB in different units:
-Xss1m
-Xss1024k
-Xss1048576
This option is similar to -XX:ThreadStackSize
.
--add-reads
module=
target-module(,
target-module)*
--add-exports
module/
package=
target-module(,
target-module)*
--add-opens
module/
package=
target-module(,
target-module)*
--limit-modules
module[,
module...]
--patch-module
module=
file(;
file)*
--source
version
The following extra options are macOS specific.
-XstartOnFirstThread
main()
method on the first (AppKit) thread.
-Xdock:name=
application_name
-Xdock:icon=
path_to_icon_file
These java
options can be used to enable other advanced options.
-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
Unlocks the options intended for diagnosing the JVM. By default, this option is disabled and diagnostic options aren't available.
Command line options that are enabled with the use of this option are not supported. If you encounter issues while using any of these options, it is very likely that you will be required to reproduce the problem without using any of these unsupported options before Oracle Support can assist with an investigation. It is also possible that any of these options may be removed or their behavior changed without any warning.
-XX:+UnlockExperimentalVMOptions
These java
options control the runtime behavior of the Java HotSpot VM.
-XX:ActiveProcessorCount=
x
Overrides the number of CPUs that the VM will use to calculate the size of thread pools it will use for various operations such as Garbage Collection and ForkJoinPool.
The VM normally determines the number of available processors from the operating system. This flag can be useful for partitioning CPU resources when running multiple Java processes in docker containers. This flag is honored even if UseContainerSupport
is not enabled. See -XX:-UseContainerSupport
for a description of enabling and disabling container support.
-XX:AllocateHeapAt=
path
Takes a path to the file system and uses memory mapping to allocate the object heap on the memory device. Using this option enables the HotSpot VM to allocate the Java object heap on an alternative memory device, such as an NV-DIMM, specified by the user.
Alternative memory devices that have the same semantics as DRAM, including the semantics of atomic operations, can be used instead of DRAM for the object heap without changing the existing application code. All other memory structures (such as the code heap, metaspace, and thread stacks) continue to reside in DRAM.
Some operating systems expose non-DRAM memory through the file system. Memory-mapped files in these file systems bypass the page cache and provide a direct mapping of virtual memory to the physical memory on the device. The existing heap related flags (such as -Xmx
and -Xms
) and garbage-collection related flags continue to work as before.
-XX:-CompactStrings
Disables the Compact Strings feature. By default, this option is enabled. When this option is enabled, Java Strings containing only single-byte characters are internally represented and stored as single-byte-per-character Strings using ISO-8859-1 / Latin-1 encoding. This reduces, by 50%, the amount of space required for Strings containing only single-byte characters. For Java Strings containing at least one multibyte character: these are represented and stored as 2 bytes per character using UTF-16 encoding. Disabling the Compact Strings feature forces the use of UTF-16 encoding as the internal representation for all Java Strings.
Cases where it may be beneficial to disable Compact Strings include the following:
When it's known that an application overwhelmingly will be allocating multibyte character Strings
In the unexpected event where a performance regression is observed in migrating from Java SE 8 to Java SE 9 and an analysis shows that Compact Strings introduces the regression
In both of these scenarios, disabling Compact Strings makes sense.
-XX:ErrorFile=
filename
Specifies the path and file name to which error data is written when an irrecoverable error occurs. By default, this file is created in the current working directory and named hs_err_pid
pid.log
where pid is the identifier of the process that encountered the error.
The following example shows how to set the default log file (note that the identifier of the process is specified as %p
):
-XX:ErrorFile=./hs_err_pid%p.log
Linux and macOS: The following example shows how to set the error log to /var/log/java/java_error.log
:
-XX:ErrorFile=/var/log/java/java_error.log
Windows: The following example shows how to set the error log file to C:/log/java/java_error.log
:
-XX:ErrorFile=C:/log/java/java_error.log
If the file exists, and is writeable, then it will be overwritten. Otherwise, if the file can't be created in the specified directory (due to insufficient space, permission problem, or another issue), then the file is created in the temporary directory for the operating system:
Linux and macOS: The temporary directory is /tmp
.
Windows: The temporary directory is specified by the value of the TMP
environment variable; if that environment variable isn't defined, then the value of the TEMP
environment variable is used.
-XX:+ExtensiveErrorReports
ErrorFile
. This option can be turned on in environments where maximal information is desired - even if the resulting logs may be quite large and/or contain information that might be considered sensitive. The information can vary from release to release, and across different platforms. By default this option is disabled.
-XX:FlightRecorderOptions=
parameter=
value (or)
-XX:FlightRecorderOptions:
parameter=
value
Sets the parameters that control the behavior of JFR.
The following list contains the available JFR parameter=
value entries:
globalbuffersize=
size
memorysize
. Change the memorysize
parameter to alter the size of global buffers.
maxchunksize=
size
m
or M
to specify the size in megabytes (MB), or g
or G
to specify the size in gigabytes (GB). By default, the maximum size of data chunks is set to 12 MB. The minimum allowed is 1 MB.
memorysize=
size
globalbuffersize
and numglobalbuffers
parameters based on the size specified. Append m
or M
to specify the size in megabytes (MB), or g
or G
to specify the size in gigabytes (GB). By default, the memory size is set to 10 MB.
numglobalbuffers
memorysize
parameter to alter the number of global buffers.
old-object-queue-size=number-of-objects
repository=
path
retransform=
{true
|false
}
samplethreads=
{true
|false
}
stackdepth=
depth
threadbuffersize=
size
You can specify values for multiple parameters by separating them with a comma.
-XX:LargePageSizeInBytes=
size
Sets the maximum large page size (in bytes) used by the JVM. The size argument must be a valid page size supported by the environment to have any effect. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the size is set to 0, meaning that the JVM will use the default large page size for the environment as the maximum size for large pages. See Large Pages.
The following example describes how to set the large page size to 1 gigabyte (GB):
-XX:LargePageSizeInBytes=1g
-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=
size
Sets the maximum total size (in bytes) of the java.nio
package, direct-buffer allocations. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the size is set to 0, meaning that the JVM chooses the size for NIO direct-buffer allocations automatically.
The following examples illustrate how to set the NIO size to 1024 KB in different units:
-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=1m
-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=1024k
-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=1048576
-XX:-MaxFDLimit
-XX:NativeMemoryTracking=
mode
Specifies the mode for tracking JVM native memory usage. Possible mode arguments for this option include the following:
off
-XX:NativeMemoryTracking
option.
summary
detail
CallSite
, individual virtual memory region and its committed regions.
-XX:ObjectAlignmentInBytes=
alignment
Sets the memory alignment of Java objects (in bytes). By default, the value is set to 8 bytes. The specified value should be a power of 2, and must be within the range of 8 and 256 (inclusive). This option makes it possible to use compressed pointers with large Java heap sizes.
The heap size limit in bytes is calculated as:
4GB * ObjectAlignmentInBytes
Note: As the alignment value increases, the unused space between objects also increases. As a result, you may not realize any benefits from using compressed pointers with large Java heap sizes.
-XX:OnError=
string
Sets a custom command or a series of semicolon-separated commands to run when an irrecoverable error occurs. If the string contains spaces, then it must be enclosed in quotation marks.
Linux and macOS: The following example shows how the -XX:OnError
option can be used to run the gcore
command to create a core image, and start the gdb
debugger to attach to the process in case of an irrecoverable error (the %p
designates the current process identifier):
-XX:OnError="gcore %p;gdb -p %p"
Windows: The following example shows how the -XX:OnError
option can be used to run the userdump.exe
utility to obtain a crash dump in case of an irrecoverable error (the %p
designates the current process identifier). This example assumes that the path to the userdump.exe
utility is specified in the PATH
environment variable:
-XX:OnError="userdump.exe %p"
-XX:OnOutOfMemoryError=
string
OutOfMemoryError
exception is first thrown. If the string contains spaces, then it must be enclosed in quotation marks. For an example of a command string, see the description of the -XX:OnError
option.
-XX:+PrintCommandLineFlags
-XX:+PreserveFramePointer
-XX:-PreserveFramePointer
) and using the RBP register to hold the frame pointer of the currently executing method (-XX:+PreserveFramePointer
. If the frame pointer is available, then external profiling tools (for example, Linux perf) can construct more accurate stack traces.
-XX:+PrintNMTStatistics
-XX:NativeMemoryTracking
). By default, this option is disabled and native memory tracking data isn't printed.
-XX:SharedArchiveFile=
path
Specifies the path and name of the class data sharing (CDS) archive file
-XX:+VerifySharedSpaces
-XX:SharedArchiveConfigFile
=shared_config_file
-XX:SharedClassListFile=
file_name
Specifies the text file that contains the names of the classes to store in the class data sharing (CDS) archive. This file contains the full name of one class per line, except slashes (/
) replace dots (.
). For example, to specify the classes java.lang.Object
and hello.Main
, create a text file that contains the following two lines:
java/lang/Object
hello/Main
The classes that you specify in this text file should include the classes that are commonly used by the application. They may include any classes from the application, extension, or bootstrap class paths.
-XX:+ShowCodeDetailsInExceptionMessages
NullPointerException
messages. When an application throws a NullPointerException
, the option enables the JVM to analyze the program's bytecode instructions to determine precisely which reference is null
, and describes the source with a null-detail message. The null-detail message is calculated and returned by NullPointerException.getMessage()
, and will be printed as the exception message along with the method, filename, and line number. By default, this option is enabled.
-XX:+ShowMessageBoxOnError
-XX:StartFlightRecording=
parameter=
value
Starts a JFR recording for the Java application. This option is equivalent to the JFR.start
diagnostic command that starts a recording during runtime. You can set the following parameter=
value entries when starting a JFR recording:
delay=
time
s
to specify the time in seconds, m
for minutes, h
for hours, or d
for days (for example, 10m
means 10 minutes). By default, there's no delay, and this parameter is set to 0.
disk=
{true
|false
}
false
. To enable it, set the parameter to true
.
dumponexit=
{true
|false
}
filename
is not entered, the recording is written to a file in the directory where the process was started. The file name is a system-generated name that contains the process ID, recording ID, and current timestamp, similar to hotspot-pid-47496-id-1-2018_01_25_19_10_41.jfr
. By default, this parameter is disabled.
duration=
time
s
to specify the time in seconds, m
for minutes, h
for hours, or d
for days (for example, specifying 5h
means 5 hours). By default, the duration isn't limited, and this parameter is set to 0.
filename=
path
Specifies the path and name of the file to which the recording is written when the recording is stopped, for example:
recording.jfr
/home/user/recordings/recording.jfr
c:\recordings\recording.jfr
name=
identifier
maxage=
time
disk
parameter is set to true
. Append s
to specify the time in seconds, m
for minutes, h
for hours, or d
for days (for example, specifying 30s
means 30 seconds). By default, the maximum age isn't limited, and this parameter is set to 0s
.
maxsize=
size
disk
parameter is set to true
. The value must not be less than the value for the maxchunksize
parameter set with -XX:FlightRecorderOptions
. Append m
or M
to specify the size in megabytes, or g
or G
to specify the size in gigabytes. By default, the maximum size of disk data isn't limited, and this parameter is set to 0
.
path-to-gc-roots=
{true
|false
}
Specifies whether to collect the path to garbage collection (GC) roots at the end of a recording. By default, this parameter is disabled.
The path to GC roots is useful for finding memory leaks, but collecting it is time-consuming. Enable this option only when you start a recording for an application that you suspect has a memory leak. If the settings
parameter is set to profile
, the stack trace from where the potential leaking object was allocated is included in the information collected.
settings=
path
Specifies the path and name of the event settings file (of type JFC). By default, the default.jfc
file is used, which is located in JAVA_HOME/lib/jfr
. This default settings file collects a predefined set of information with low overhead, so it has minimal impact on performance and can be used with recordings that run continuously.
A second settings file is also provided, profile.jfc, which provides more data than the default configuration, but can have more overhead and impact performance. Use this configuration for short periods of time when more information is needed.
You can specify values for multiple parameters by separating them with a comma. Event settings and .jfc options can be specified using the following syntax:
option=
value
JAVA_HOME
/bin/jfr tool.
event-setting
=value
You can specify values for multiple event settings and .jfc options by separating them with a comma. In case of a conflict between a parameter and a .jfc option, the parameter will take precedence. The whitespace delimiter can be omitted for timespan values, i.e. 20ms. For more information about the settings syntax, see Javadoc of the jdk.jfr package.
-XX:ThreadStackSize=
size
Sets the Java thread stack size (in kilobytes). Use of a scaling suffix, such as k
, results in the scaling of the kilobytes value so that -XX:ThreadStackSize=1k
sets the Java thread stack size to 1024*1024 bytes or 1 megabyte. The default value depends on the platform:
Linux/x64 (64-bit): 1024 KB
macOS (64-bit): 1024 KB
Windows: The default value depends on virtual memory
The following examples show how to set the thread stack size to 1 megabyte in different units:
-XX:ThreadStackSize=1k
-XX:ThreadStackSize=1024
This option is similar to -Xss
.
-XX:-UseCompressedOops
Disables the use of compressed pointers. By default, this option is enabled, and compressed pointers are used. This will automatically limit the maximum ergonomically determined Java heap size to the maximum amount of memory that can be covered by compressed pointers. By default this range is 32 GB.
With compressed oops enabled, object references are represented as 32-bit offsets instead of 64-bit pointers, which typically increases performance when running the application with Java heap sizes smaller than the compressed oops pointer range. This option works only for 64-bit JVMs.
It's possible to use compressed pointers with Java heap sizes greater than 32 GB. See the -XX:ObjectAlignmentInBytes
option.
-XX:-UseContainerSupport
The VM now provides automatic container detection support, which allows the VM to determine the amount of memory and number of processors that are available to a Java process running in docker containers. It uses this information to allocate system resources. This support is only available on Linux x64 platforms. If supported, the default for this flag is true
, and container support is enabled by default. It can be disabled with -XX:-UseContainerSupport
.
Unified Logging is available to help to diagnose issues related to this support.
Use -Xlog:os+container=trace
for maximum logging of container information. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework for a description of using Unified Logging.
-XX:+UseHugeTLBFS
Linux only: This option is the equivalent of specifying -XX:+UseLargePages
. This option is disabled by default. This option pre-allocates all large pages up-front, when memory is reserved; consequently the JVM can't dynamically grow or shrink large pages memory areas; see -XX:UseTransparentHugePages
if you want this behavior.
See Large Pages.
-XX:+UseLargePages
Enables the use of large page memory. By default, this option is disabled and large page memory isn't used.
See Large Pages.
-XX:+UseTransparentHugePages
-XX:+AllowUserSignalHandlers
-XX:VMOptionsFile=
filename
java -XX:VMOptionsFile=/var/my_vm_options HelloWorld
.
These java
options control the dynamic just-in-time (JIT) compilation performed by the Java HotSpot VM.
-XX:AllocateInstancePrefetchLines=
lines
Sets the number of lines to prefetch ahead of the instance allocation pointer. By default, the number of lines to prefetch is set to 1:
-XX:AllocateInstancePrefetchLines=1
-XX:AllocatePrefetchDistance=
size
Sets the size (in bytes) of the prefetch distance for object allocation. Memory about to be written with the value of new objects is prefetched up to this distance starting from the address of the last allocated object. Each Java thread has its own allocation point.
Negative values denote that prefetch distance is chosen based on the platform. Positive values are bytes to prefetch. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value is set to -1.
The following example shows how to set the prefetch distance to 1024 bytes:
-XX:AllocatePrefetchDistance=1024
-XX:AllocatePrefetchInstr=
instruction
Sets the prefetch instruction to prefetch ahead of the allocation pointer. Possible values are from 0 to 3. The actual instructions behind the values depend on the platform. By default, the prefetch instruction is set to 0:
-XX:AllocatePrefetchInstr=0
-XX:AllocatePrefetchLines=
lines
Sets the number of cache lines to load after the last object allocation by using the prefetch instructions generated in compiled code. The default value is 1 if the last allocated object was an instance, and 3 if it was an array.
The following example shows how to set the number of loaded cache lines to 5:
-XX:AllocatePrefetchLines=5
-XX:AllocatePrefetchStepSize=
size
Sets the step size (in bytes) for sequential prefetch instructions. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the step size is set to 16 bytes:
-XX:AllocatePrefetchStepSize=16
-XX:AllocatePrefetchStyle=
style
Sets the generated code style for prefetch instructions. The style argument is an integer from 0 to 3:
0
1
2
3
-XX:+BackgroundCompilation
-XX:-BackgroundCompilation
(this is equivalent to specifying -Xbatch
).
-XX:CICompilerCount=
threads
Sets the number of compiler threads to use for compilation. By default, the number of compiler threads is selected automatically depending on the number of CPUs and memory available for compiled code. The following example shows how to set the number of threads to 2:
-XX:CICompilerCount=2
-XX:+UseDynamicNumberOfCompilerThreads
-XX:CICompilerCount
. This option is enabled by default.
-XX:CompileCommand=
command,
method[,
option]
Specifies a command to perform on a method. For example, to exclude the indexOf()
method of the String
class from being compiled, use the following:
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,java/lang/String.indexOf
Note that the full class name is specified, including all packages and subpackages separated by a slash (/
). For easier cut-and-paste operations, it's also possible to use the method name format produced by the -XX:+PrintCompilation
and -XX:+LogCompilation
options:
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,java.lang.String::indexOf
If the method is specified without the signature, then the command is applied to all methods with the specified name. However, you can also specify the signature of the method in the class file format. In this case, you should enclose the arguments in quotation marks, because otherwise the shell treats the semicolon as a command end. For example, if you want to exclude only the indexOf(String)
method of the String
class from being compiled, use the following:
-XX:CompileCommand="exclude,java/lang/String.indexOf,(Ljava/lang/String;)I"
You can also use the asterisk (*) as a wildcard for class and method names. For example, to exclude all indexOf()
methods in all classes from being compiled, use the following:
-XX:CompileCommand=exclude,*.indexOf
The commas and periods are aliases for spaces, making it easier to pass compiler commands through a shell. You can pass arguments to -XX:CompileCommand
using spaces as separators by enclosing the argument in quotation marks:
-XX:CompileCommand="exclude java/lang/String indexOf"
Note that after parsing the commands passed on the command line using the -XX:CompileCommand
options, the JIT compiler then reads commands from the .hotspot_compiler
file. You can add commands to this file or specify a different file using the -XX:CompileCommandFile
option.
To add several commands, either specify the -XX:CompileCommand
option multiple times, or separate each argument with the new line separator (\n
). The following commands are available:
break
compileonly
-XX:CompileOnly
option, which lets you specify several methods.
dontinline
exclude
help
-XX:CompileCommand
option.
inline
log
-XX:+LogCompilation
option) for all methods except for the specified method. By default, logging is performed for all compiled methods.
option
Passes a JIT compilation option to the specified method in place of the last argument (option
). The compilation option is set at the end, after the method name. For example, to enable the BlockLayoutByFrequency
option for the append()
method of the StringBuffer
class, use the following:
-XX:CompileCommand=option,java/lang/StringBuffer.append,BlockLayoutByFrequency
You can specify multiple compilation options, separated by commas or spaces.
print
quiet
Instructs not to print the compile commands. By default, the commands that you specify with the -XX:CompileCommand
option are printed; for example, if you exclude from compilation the indexOf()
method of the String
class, then the following is printed to standard output:
CompilerOracle: exclude java/lang/String.indexOf
You can suppress this by specifying the -XX:CompileCommand=quiet
option before other -XX:CompileCommand
options.
-XX:CompileCommandFile=
filename
Sets the file from which JIT compiler commands are read. By default, the .hotspot_compiler
file is used to store commands performed by the JIT compiler.
Each line in the command file represents a command, a class name, and a method name for which the command is used. For example, this line prints assembly code for the toString()
method of the String
class:
print java/lang/String toString
If you're using commands for the JIT compiler to perform on methods, then see the -XX:CompileCommand
option.
-XX:CompilerDirectivesFile=
file
Adds directives from a file to the directives stack when a program starts. See Compiler Control.
The -XX:CompilerDirectivesFile
option has to be used together with the -XX:UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
option that unlocks diagnostic JVM options.
-XX:+CompilerDirectivesPrint
Prints the directives stack when the program starts or when a new directive is added.
The -XX:+CompilerDirectivesPrint
option has to be used together with the -XX:UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
option that unlocks diagnostic JVM options.
-XX:CompileOnly=
methods
Sets the list of methods (separated by commas) to which compilation should be restricted. Only the specified methods are compiled. Specify each method with the full class name (including the packages and subpackages). For example, to compile only the length()
method of the String
class and the size()
method of the List
class, use the following:
-XX:CompileOnly=java/lang/String.length,java/util/List.size
Note that the full class name is specified, including all packages and subpackages separated by a slash (/
). For easier cut and paste operations, it's also possible to use the method name format produced by the -XX:+PrintCompilation
and -XX:+LogCompilation
options:
-XX:CompileOnly=java.lang.String::length,java.util.List::size
Although wildcards aren't supported, you can specify only the class or package name to compile all methods in that class or package, as well as specify just the method to compile methods with this name in any class:
-XX:CompileOnly=java/lang/String
-XX:CompileOnly=java/lang
-XX:CompileOnly=.length
-XX:CompileThresholdScaling=
scale
CompileThresholdScaling
option has a floating point value between 0 and +Inf and scales the thresholds corresponding to the current mode of operation (both tiered and nontiered). Setting CompileThresholdScaling
to a value less than 1.0 results in earlier compilation while values greater than 1.0 delay compilation. Setting CompileThresholdScaling
to 0 is equivalent to disabling compilation.
-XX:+DoEscapeAnalysis
-XX:-DoEscapeAnalysis
.
-XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=
size
Sets the initial code cache size (in bytes). Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value depends on the platform. The initial code cache size shouldn't be less than the system's minimal memory page size. The following example shows how to set the initial code cache size to 32 KB:
-XX:InitialCodeCacheSize=32k
-XX:+Inline
-XX:-Inline
.
-XX:InlineSmallCode=
size
Sets the maximum code size (in bytes) for already compiled methods that may be inlined. This flag only applies to the C2 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value depends on the platform and on whether tiered compilation is enabled. In the following example it is set to 1000 bytes:
-XX:InlineSmallCode=1000
-XX:+LogCompilation
Enables logging of compilation activity to a file named hotspot.log
in the current working directory. You can specify a different log file path and name using the -XX:LogFile
option.
By default, this option is disabled and compilation activity isn't logged. The -XX:+LogCompilation
option has to be used together with the -XX:UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
option that unlocks diagnostic JVM options.
You can enable verbose diagnostic output with a message printed to the console every time a method is compiled by using the -XX:+PrintCompilation
option.
-XX:FreqInlineSize=
size
Sets the maximum bytecode size (in bytes) of a hot method to be inlined. This flag only applies to the C2 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value depends on the platform. In the following example it is set to 325 bytes:
-XX:FreqInlineSize=325
-XX:MaxInlineSize=
size
Sets the maximum bytecode size (in bytes) of a cold method to be inlined. This flag only applies to the C2 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the maximum bytecode size is set to 35 bytes:
-XX:MaxInlineSize=35
-XX:C1MaxInlineSize=
size
Sets the maximum bytecode size (in bytes) of a cold method to be inlined. This flag only applies to the C1 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the maximum bytecode size is set to 35 bytes:
-XX:MaxInlineSize=35
-XX:MaxTrivialSize=
size
Sets the maximum bytecode size (in bytes) of a trivial method to be inlined. This flag only applies to the C2 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the maximum bytecode size of a trivial method is set to 6 bytes:
-XX:MaxTrivialSize=6
-XX:C1MaxTrivialSize=
size
Sets the maximum bytecode size (in bytes) of a trivial method to be inlined. This flag only applies to the C1 compiler. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. By default, the maximum bytecode size of a trivial method is set to 6 bytes:
-XX:MaxTrivialSize=6
-XX:MaxNodeLimit=
nodes
Sets the maximum number of nodes to be used during single method compilation. By default the value depends on the features enabled. In the following example the maximum number of nodes is set to 100,000:
-XX:MaxNodeLimit=100000
-XX:NonNMethodCodeHeapSize=
size
Sets the size in bytes of the code segment containing nonmethod code.
A nonmethod code segment containing nonmethod code, such as compiler buffers and the bytecode interpreter. This code type stays in the code cache forever. This flag is used only if -XX:SegmentedCodeCache
is enabled.
-XX:NonProfiledCodeHeapSize=
size
-XX:SegmentedCodeCache
is enabled.
-XX:+OptimizeStringConcat
String
concatenation operations. This option is enabled by default. To disable the optimization of String
concatenation operations, specify -XX:-OptimizeStringConcat
.
-XX:+PrintAssembly
Enables printing of assembly code for bytecoded and native methods by using the external hsdis-<arch>.so
or .dll
library. For 64-bit VM on Windows, it's hsdis-amd64.dll
. This lets you to see the generated code, which may help you to diagnose performance issues.
By default, this option is disabled and assembly code isn't printed. The -XX:+PrintAssembly
option has to be used together with the -XX:UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
option that unlocks diagnostic JVM options.
-XX:ProfiledCodeHeapSize=
size
-XX:SegmentedCodeCache
is enabled.
-XX:+PrintCompilation
Enables verbose diagnostic output from the JVM by printing a message to the console every time a method is compiled. This lets you to see which methods actually get compiled. By default, this option is disabled and diagnostic output isn't printed.
You can also log compilation activity to a file by using the -XX:+LogCompilation
option.
-XX:+PrintInlining
Enables printing of inlining decisions. This let's you see which methods are getting inlined.
By default, this option is disabled and inlining information isn't printed. The -XX:+PrintInlining
option has to be used together with the -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
option that unlocks diagnostic JVM options.
-XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize=
size
k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default maximum code cache size is 240 MB; if you disable tiered compilation with the option -XX:-TieredCompilation
, then the default size is 48 MB. This option has a limit of 2 GB; otherwise, an error is generated. The maximum code cache size shouldn't be less than the initial code cache size; see the option -XX:InitialCodeCacheSize
.
-XX:RTMAbortRatio=
abort_ratio
-XX:+UseRTMDeopt
option is enabled. The default value of this option is 50. This means that the compiled code is deoptimized if 50% of all transactions are aborted.
-XX:RTMRetryCount=
number_of_retries
-XX:UseRTMLocking
option must be enabled.
-XX:+SegmentedCodeCache
-XX:+SegmentedCodeCache
, the code cache consists of one large segment. With -XX:+SegmentedCodeCache
, we have separate segments for nonmethod, profiled method, and nonprofiled method code. These segments aren't resized at runtime. The feature is enabled by default if tiered compilation is enabled (-XX:+TieredCompilation
) and -XX:ReservedCodeCacheSize
>= 240 MB. The advantages are better control of the memory footprint, reduced code fragmentation, and better iTLB/iCache behavior due to improved locality. iTLB/iCache is a CPU-specific term meaning Instruction Translation Lookaside Buffer (ITLB). ICache is an instruction cache in theCPU. The implementation of the code cache can be found in the file: /share/vm/code/codeCache.cpp
.
-XX:StartAggressiveSweepingAt=
percent
-XX:-TieredCompilation
-XX:UseSSE=
version
-XX:UseAVX=
version
-XX:+UseAES
-XX:+UseAES
is used in conjunction with UseAESIntrinsics. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseAESIntrinsics
Enables AES intrinsics. Specifying-XX:+UseAESIntrinsics
is equivalent to also enabling -XX:+UseAES
. To disable hardware-based AES intrinsics, specify -XX:-UseAES -XX:-UseAESIntrinsics
. For example, to enable hardware AES, use the following flags:
-XX:+UseAES -XX:+UseAESIntrinsics
Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseAESCTRIntrinsics
-XX:+UseAESIntrinsics
enables AES/CTR intrinsics.
-XX:+UseGHASHIntrinsics
-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseBASE64Intrinsics
java.util.Base64
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseAdler32Intrinsics
java.util.zip.Adler32
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseCRC32Intrinsics
java.util.zip.CRC32
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseCRC32CIntrinsics
java.util.zip.CRC32C
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseSHA
Enables hardware-based intrinsics for SHA crypto hash functions for some hardware. The UseSHA
option is used in conjunction with the UseSHA1Intrinsics
, UseSHA256Intrinsics
, and UseSHA512Intrinsics
options.
The UseSHA
and UseSHA*Intrinsics
flags are enabled by default on machines that support the corresponding instructions.
This feature is applicable only when using the sun.security.provider.Sun
provider for SHA operations. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
To disable all hardware-based SHA intrinsics, specify the -XX:-UseSHA
. To disable only a particular SHA intrinsic, use the appropriate corresponding option. For example: -XX:-UseSHA256Intrinsics
.
-XX:+UseSHA1Intrinsics
-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseSHA256Intrinsics
-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseSHA512Intrinsics
-XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseMathExactIntrinsics
java.lang.Math.*Exact()
functions. Enabled by default. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseMultiplyToLenIntrinsic
BigInteger.multiplyToLen()
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
BigInteger.squareToLen()
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
BigInteger.mulAdd()
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
BigInteger.montgomeryMultiply()
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
BigInteger.montgomerySquare()
. Enabled by default on platforms that support it. Flags that control intrinsics now require the option -XX:+UnlockDiagnosticVMOptions
.
-XX:+UseCMoveUnconditionally
-XX:+UseCodeCacheFlushing
-XX:-UseCodeCacheFlushing
.
-XX:+UseCondCardMark
-XX:+UseCountedLoopSafepoints
-XX:LoopStripMiningIter=
number_of_iterations
-XX:LoopStripMiningIterShortLoop
=number_of_iterations
-XX:LoopStripMiningIter
.
-XX:+UseFMA
java.lang.Math.fma(
a,
b,
c)
methods that calculate the value of (
a *
b +
c )
expressions.
-XX:+UseRTMDeopt
-XX:RTMAbortRatio
option. If the number of aborted transactions exceeds the abort ratio, then the method containing the lock is deoptimized and recompiled with all locks as normal locks. This option is disabled by default. The -XX:+UseRTMLocking
option must be enabled.
-XX:+UseRTMLocking
Generates Restricted Transactional Memory (RTM) locking code for all inflated locks, with the normal locking mechanism as the fallback handler. This option is disabled by default. Options related to RTM are available only on x86 CPUs that support Transactional Synchronization Extensions (TSX).
RTM is part of Intel's TSX, which is an x86 instruction set extension and facilitates the creation of multithreaded applications. RTM introduces the new instructions XBEGIN
, XABORT
, XEND
, and XTEST
. The XBEGIN
and XEND
instructions enclose a set of instructions to run as a transaction. If no conflict is found when running the transaction, then the memory and register modifications are committed together at the XEND
instruction. The XABORT
instruction can be used to explicitly abort a transaction and the XTEST
instruction checks if a set of instructions is being run in a transaction.
A lock on a transaction is inflated when another thread tries to access the same transaction, thereby blocking the thread that didn't originally request access to the transaction. RTM requires that a fallback set of operations be specified in case a transaction aborts or fails. An RTM lock is a lock that has been delegated to the TSX's system.
RTM improves performance for highly contended locks with low conflict in a critical region (which is code that must not be accessed by more than one thread concurrently). RTM also improves the performance of coarse-grain locking, which typically doesn't perform well in multithreaded applications. (Coarse-grain locking is the strategy of holding locks for long periods to minimize the overhead of taking and releasing locks, while fine-grained locking is the strategy of trying to achieve maximum parallelism by locking only when necessary and unlocking as soon as possible.) Also, for lightly contended locks that are used by different threads, RTM can reduce false cache line sharing, also known as cache line ping-pong. This occurs when multiple threads from different processors are accessing different resources, but the resources share the same cache line. As a result, the processors repeatedly invalidate the cache lines of other processors, which forces them to read from main memory instead of their cache.
-XX:+UseSuperWord
-XX:-UseSuperWord
.
These java
options provide the ability to gather system information and perform extensive debugging.
-XX:+DisableAttachMechanism
Disables the mechanism that lets tools attach to the JVM. By default, this option is disabled, meaning that the attach mechanism is enabled and you can use diagnostics and troubleshooting tools such as jcmd
, jstack
, jmap
, and jinfo
.
Note: The tools such as jcmd, jinfo, jmap, and jstack shipped with the JDK aren't supported when using the tools from one JDK version to troubleshoot a different JDK version.
-XX:+ExtendedDTraceProbes
dtrace
tool probes that affect the performance. By default, this option is disabled and dtrace
performs only standard probes.
-XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
java.lang.OutOfMemoryError
exception is thrown. You can explicitly set the heap dump file path and name using the -XX:HeapDumpPath
option. By default, this option is disabled and the heap isn't dumped when an OutOfMemoryError
exception is thrown.
-XX:HeapDumpPath=path
Sets the path and file name for writing the heap dump provided by the heap profiler (HPROF) when the -XX:+HeapDumpOnOutOfMemoryError
option is set. By default, the file is created in the current working directory, and it's named java_pid<pid>.hprof
where <pid>
is the identifier of the process that caused the error. The following example shows how to set the default file explicitly (%p
represents the current process identifier):
-XX:HeapDumpPath=./java_pid%p.hprof
Linux and macOS: The following example shows how to set the heap dump file to /var/log/java/java_heapdump.hprof
:
-XX:HeapDumpPath=/var/log/java/java_heapdump.hprof
Windows: The following example shows how to set the heap dump file to C:/log/java/java_heapdump.log
:
-XX:HeapDumpPath=C:/log/java/java_heapdump.log
-XX:LogFile=
path
Sets the path and file name to where log data is written. By default, the file is created in the current working directory, and it's named hotspot.log
.
Linux and macOS: The following example shows how to set the log file to /var/log/java/hotspot.log
:
-XX:LogFile=/var/log/java/hotspot.log
Windows: The following example shows how to set the log file to C:/log/java/hotspot.log
:
-XX:LogFile=C:/log/java/hotspot.log
-XX:+PrintClassHistogram
Enables printing of a class instance histogram after one of the following events:
Linux and macOS: Control+Break
Windows: Control+C
(SIGTERM
)
By default, this option is disabled.
Setting this option is equivalent to running the jmap -histo
command, or the jcmd
pid GC.class_histogram
command, where pid is the current Java process identifier.
-XX:+PrintConcurrentLocks
Enables printing of java.util.concurrent
locks after one of the following events:
Linux and macOS: Control+Break
Windows: Control+C
(SIGTERM
)
By default, this option is disabled.
Setting this option is equivalent to running the jstack -l
command or the jcmd
pid Thread.print -l
command, where pid is the current Java process identifier.
-XX:+PrintFlagsRanges
-XX:+PerfDataSaveToFile
If enabled, saves jstat binary data when the Java application exits. This binary data is saved in a file named hsperfdata_
pid, where pid is the process identifier of the Java application that you ran. Use the jstat
command to display the performance data contained in this file as follows:
jstat -class file:///
path/hsperfdata_
pid
jstat -gc file:///
path/hsperfdata_
pid
-XX:+UsePerfData
perfdata
feature. This option is enabled by default to allow JVM monitoring and performance testing. Disabling it suppresses the creation of the hsperfdata_userid
directories. To disable the perfdata
feature, specify -XX:-UsePerfData
.
These java
options control how garbage collection (GC) is performed by the Java HotSpot VM.
-XX:+AggressiveHeap
-XX:+AlwaysPreTouch
-XX:ConcGCThreads=
threads
Sets the number of threads used for concurrent GC. Sets threads
to approximately 1/4 of the number of parallel garbage collection threads. The default value depends on the number of CPUs available to the JVM.
For example, to set the number of threads for concurrent GC to 2, specify the following option:
-XX:ConcGCThreads=2
-XX:+DisableExplicitGC
System.gc()
method. This option is disabled by default, meaning that calls to System.gc()
are processed. If processing of calls to System.gc()
is disabled, then the JVM still performs GC when necessary.
-XX:+ExplicitGCInvokesConcurrent
System.gc()
request. This option is disabled by default and can be enabled only with the -XX:+UseG1GC
option.
-XX:G1AdaptiveIHOPNumInitialSamples=
number
-XX:UseAdaptiveIHOP
is enabled, this option sets the number of completed marking cycles used to gather samples until G1 adaptively determines the optimum value of -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent
. Before, G1 uses the value of -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent
directly for this purpose. The default value is 3.
-XX:G1HeapRegionSize=size
Sets the size of the regions into which the Java heap is subdivided when using the garbage-first (G1) collector. The value is a power of 2 and can range from 1 MB to 32 MB. The default region size is determined ergonomically based on the heap size with a goal of approximately 2048 regions.
The following example sets the size of the subdivisions to 16 MB:
-XX:G1HeapRegionSize=16m
-XX:G1HeapWastePercent=
percent
-XX:G1MaxNewSizePercent=
percent
Sets the percentage of the heap size to use as the maximum for the young generation size. The default value is 60 percent of your Java heap.
This is an experimental flag. This setting replaces the -XX:DefaultMaxNewGenPercent
setting.
-XX:G1MixedGCCountTarget=
number
G1MixedGCLIveThresholdPercent
live data. The default is 8 mixed garbage collections. The goal for mixed collections is to be within this target number.
-XX:G1MixedGCLiveThresholdPercent=
percent
Sets the occupancy threshold for an old region to be included in a mixed garbage collection cycle. The default occupancy is 85 percent.
This is an experimental flag. This setting replaces the -XX:G1OldCSetRegionLiveThresholdPercent
setting.
-XX:G1NewSizePercent=
percent
Sets the percentage of the heap to use as the minimum for the young generation size. The default value is 5 percent of your Java heap.
This is an experimental flag. This setting replaces the -XX:DefaultMinNewGenPercent
setting.
-XX:G1OldCSetRegionThresholdPercent=
percent
-XX:G1ReservePercent=
percent
Sets the percentage of the heap (0 to 50) that's reserved as a false ceiling to reduce the possibility of promotion failure for the G1 collector. When you increase or decrease the percentage, ensure that you adjust the total Java heap by the same amount. By default, this option is set to 10%.
The following example sets the reserved heap to 20%:
-XX:G1ReservePercent=20
-XX:+G1UseAdaptiveIHOP
Controls adaptive calculation of the old generation occupancy to start background work preparing for an old generation collection. If enabled, G1 uses -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent
for the first few times as specified by the value of -XX:G1AdaptiveIHOPNumInitialSamples
, and after that adaptively calculates a new optimum value for the initiating occupancy automatically. Otherwise, the old generation collection process always starts at the old generation occupancy determined by -XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent
.
The default is enabled.
-XX:InitialHeapSize=
size
Sets the initial size (in bytes) of the memory allocation pool. This value must be either 0, or a multiple of 1024 and greater than 1 MB. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value is selected at run time based on the system configuration.
The following examples show how to set the size of allocated memory to 6 MB using various units:
-XX:InitialHeapSize=6291456
-XX:InitialHeapSize=6144k
-XX:InitialHeapSize=6m
If you set this option to 0, then the initial size is set as the sum of the sizes allocated for the old generation and the young generation. The size of the heap for the young generation can be set using the -XX:NewSize
option. Note that the -Xms
option sets both the minimum and the initial heap size of the heap. If -Xms
appears after -XX:InitialHeapSize
on the command line, then the initial heap size gets set to the value specified with -Xms
.
-XX:InitialRAMPercentage=
percent
Sets the initial amount of memory that the JVM will use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a percentage of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option. The default value is 1.5625 percent.
The following example shows how to set the percentage of the initial amount of memory used for the Java heap:
-XX:InitialRAMPercentage=5
-XX:InitialSurvivorRatio=
ratio
Sets the initial survivor space ratio used by the throughput garbage collector (which is enabled by the -XX:+UseParallelGC
option). Adaptive sizing is enabled by default with the throughput garbage collector by using the -XX:+UseParallelGC
option, and the survivor space is resized according to the application behavior, starting with the initial value. If adaptive sizing is disabled (using the -XX:-UseAdaptiveSizePolicy
option), then the -XX:SurvivorRatio
option should be used to set the size of the survivor space for the entire execution of the application.
The following formula can be used to calculate the initial size of survivor space (S) based on the size of the young generation (Y), and the initial survivor space ratio (R):
S=Y/(R+2)
The 2 in the equation denotes two survivor spaces. The larger the value specified as the initial survivor space ratio, the smaller the initial survivor space size.
By default, the initial survivor space ratio is set to 8. If the default value for the young generation space size is used (2 MB), then the initial size of the survivor space is 0.2 MB.
The following example shows how to set the initial survivor space ratio to 4:
-XX:InitialSurvivorRatio=4
-XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=
percent
Sets the percentage of the old generation occupancy (0 to 100) at which to start the first few concurrent marking cycles for the G1 garbage collector.
By default, the initiating value is set to 45%. A value of 0 implies nonstop concurrent GC cycles from the beginning until G1 adaptively sets this value.
See also the -XX:G1UseAdaptiveIHOP
and -XX:G1AdaptiveIHOPNumInitialSamples
options.
The following example shows how to set the initiating heap occupancy to 75%:
-XX:InitiatingHeapOccupancyPercent=75
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=
time
Sets a target for the maximum GC pause time (in milliseconds). This is a soft goal, and the JVM will make its best effort to achieve it. The specified value doesn't adapt to your heap size. By default, for G1 the maximum pause time target is 200 milliseconds. The other generational collectors do not use a pause time goal by default.
The following example shows how to set the maximum target pause time to 500 ms:
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=500
-XX:MaxHeapSize=
size
Sets the maximum size (in byes) of the memory allocation pool. This value must be a multiple of 1024 and greater than 2 MB. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value is selected at run time based on the system configuration. For server deployments, the options -XX:InitialHeapSize
and -XX:MaxHeapSize
are often set to the same value.
The following examples show how to set the maximum allowed size of allocated memory to 80 MB using various units:
-XX:MaxHeapSize=83886080
-XX:MaxHeapSize=81920k
-XX:MaxHeapSize=80m
The -XX:MaxHeapSize
option is equivalent to -Xmx
.
-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=
percent
Sets the maximum allowed percentage of free heap space (0 to 100) after a GC event. If free heap space expands above this value, then the heap is shrunk. By default, this value is set to 70%.
Minimize the Java heap size by lowering the values of the parameters MaxHeapFreeRatio
(default value is 70%) and MinHeapFreeRatio
(default value is 40%) with the command-line options -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio
and -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio
. Lowering MaxHeapFreeRatio
to as low as 10% and MinHeapFreeRatio
to 5% has successfully reduced the heap size without too much performance regression; however, results may vary greatly depending on your application. Try different values for these parameters until they're as low as possible yet still retain acceptable performance.
-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=10 -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=5
Customers trying to keep the heap small should also add the option -XX:-ShrinkHeapInSteps
. See Performance Tuning Examples for a description of using this option to keep the Java heap small by reducing the dynamic footprint for embedded applications.
-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=
size
Sets the maximum amount of native memory that can be allocated for class metadata. By default, the size isn't limited. The amount of metadata for an application depends on the application itself, other running applications, and the amount of memory available on the system.
The following example shows how to set the maximum class metadata size to 256 MB:
-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize=256m
-XX:MaxNewSize=
size
-XX:MaxRAM=
size
Sets the maximum amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics. The default value is the maximum amount of available memory to the JVM process or 128 GB, whichever is lower.
The maximum amount of available memory to the JVM process is the minimum of the machine's physical memory and any constraints set by the environment (e.g. container).
Specifying this option disables automatic use of compressed oops if the combined result of this and other options influencing the maximum amount of memory is larger than the range of memory addressable by compressed oops. See -XX:UseCompressedOops
for further information about compressed oops.
The following example shows how to set the maximum amount of available memory for sizing the Java heap to 2 GB:
-XX:MaxRAM=2G
-XX:MaxRAMPercentage=
percent
Sets the maximum amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a percentage of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option. The default value is 25 percent.
Specifying this option disables automatic use of compressed oops if the combined result of this and other options influencing the maximum amount of memory is larger than the range of memory addressable by compressed oops. See -XX:UseCompressedOops
for further information about compressed oops.
The following example shows how to set the percentage of the maximum amount of memory used for the Java heap:
-XX:MaxRAMPercentage=75
-XX:MinRAMPercentage=
percent
Sets the maximum amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a percentage of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option for small heaps. A small heap is a heap of approximately 125 MB. The default value is 50 percent.
The following example shows how to set the percentage of the maximum amount of memory used for the Java heap for small heaps:
-XX:MinRAMPercentage=75
-XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=
threshold
Sets the maximum tenuring threshold for use in adaptive GC sizing. The largest value is 15. The default value is 15 for the parallel (throughput) collector.
The following example shows how to set the maximum tenuring threshold to 10:
-XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=10
-XX:MetaspaceSize=
size
-XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=
percent
Sets the minimum allowed percentage of free heap space (0 to 100) after a GC event. If free heap space falls below this value, then the heap is expanded. By default, this value is set to 40%.
Minimize Java heap size by lowering the values of the parameters MaxHeapFreeRatio
(default value is 70%) and MinHeapFreeRatio
(default value is 40%) with the command-line options -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio
and -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio
. Lowering MaxHeapFreeRatio
to as low as 10% and MinHeapFreeRatio
to 5% has successfully reduced the heap size without too much performance regression; however, results may vary greatly depending on your application. Try different values for these parameters until they're as low as possible, yet still retain acceptable performance.
-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=10 -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=5
Customers trying to keep the heap small should also add the option -XX:-ShrinkHeapInSteps
. See Performance Tuning Examples for a description of using this option to keep the Java heap small by reducing the dynamic footprint for embedded applications.
-XX:MinHeapSize=
size
Sets the minimum size (in bytes) of the memory allocation pool. This value must be either 0, or a multiple of 1024 and greater than 1 MB. Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. The default value is selected at run time based on the system configuration.
The following examples show how to set the mimimum size of allocated memory to 6 MB using various units:
-XX:MinHeapSize=6291456
-XX:MinHeapSize=6144k
-XX:MinHeapSize=6m
If you set this option to 0, then the minimum size is set to the same value as the initial size.
-XX:NewRatio=
ratio
Sets the ratio between young and old generation sizes. By default, this option is set to 2. The following example shows how to set the young-to-old ratio to 1:
-XX:NewRatio=1
-XX:NewSize=
size
Sets the initial size (in bytes) of the heap for the young generation (nursery). Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes.
The young generation region of the heap is used for new objects. GC is performed in this region more often than in other regions. If the size for the young generation is too low, then a large number of minor GCs are performed. If the size is too high, then only full GCs are performed, which can take a long time to complete. It is recommended that you keep the size for the young generation greater than 25% and less than 50% of the overall heap size.
The following examples show how to set the initial size of the young generation to 256 MB using various units:
-XX:NewSize=256m
-XX:NewSize=262144k
-XX:NewSize=268435456
The -XX:NewSize
option is equivalent to -Xmn
.
-XX:ParallelGCThreads=
threads
Sets the number of the stop-the-world (STW) worker threads. The default value depends on the number of CPUs available to the JVM and the garbage collector selected.
For example, to set the number of threads for G1 GC to 2, specify the following option:
-XX:ParallelGCThreads=2
-XX:+ParallelRefProcEnabled
-XX:+PrintAdaptiveSizePolicy
-XX:+ScavengeBeforeFullGC
-XX:-ScavengeBeforeFullGC
.
-XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=
time
Sets the amount of time (in milliseconds) a softly reachable object is kept active on the heap after the last time it was referenced. The default value is one second of lifetime per free megabyte in the heap. The -XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB
option accepts integer values representing milliseconds per one megabyte of the current heap size (for Java HotSpot Client VM) or the maximum possible heap size (for Java HotSpot Server VM). This difference means that the Client VM tends to flush soft references rather than grow the heap, whereas the Server VM tends to grow the heap rather than flush soft references. In the latter case, the value of the -Xmx
option has a significant effect on how quickly soft references are garbage collected.
The following example shows how to set the value to 2.5 seconds:
-XX:SoftRefLRUPolicyMSPerMB=2500
-XX:-ShrinkHeapInSteps
Incrementally reduces the Java heap to the target size, specified by the option -XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio
. This option is enabled by default. If disabled, then it immediately reduces the Java heap to the target size instead of requiring multiple garbage collection cycles. Disable this option if you want to minimize the Java heap size. You will likely encounter performance degradation when this option is disabled.
See Performance Tuning Examples for a description of using the MaxHeapFreeRatio
option to keep the Java heap small by reducing the dynamic footprint for embedded applications.
-XX:StringDeduplicationAgeThreshold=
threshold
Identifies String
objects reaching the specified age that are considered candidates for deduplication. An object's age is a measure of how many times it has survived garbage collection. This is sometimes referred to as tenuring.
Note:
String
objects that are promoted to an old heap region before this age has been reached are always considered candidates for deduplication. The default value for this option is3
. See the-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
option.
-XX:SurvivorRatio=
ratio
Sets the ratio between eden space size and survivor space size. By default, this option is set to 8. The following example shows how to set the eden/survivor space ratio to 4:
-XX:SurvivorRatio=4
-XX:TargetSurvivorRatio=
percent
Sets the desired percentage of survivor space (0 to 100) used after young garbage collection. By default, this option is set to 50%.
The following example shows how to set the target survivor space ratio to 30%:
-XX:TargetSurvivorRatio=30
-XX:TLABSize=
size
Sets the initial size (in bytes) of a thread-local allocation buffer (TLAB). Append the letter k
or K
to indicate kilobytes, m
or M
to indicate megabytes, or g
or G
to indicate gigabytes. If this option is set to 0, then the JVM selects the initial size automatically.
The following example shows how to set the initial TLAB size to 512 KB:
-XX:TLABSize=512k
-XX:+UseAdaptiveSizePolicy
-XX:-UseAdaptiveSizePolicy
and set the size of the memory allocation pool explicitly. See the -XX:SurvivorRatio
option.
-XX:+UseG1GC
-XX:+UseGCOverheadLimit
OutOfMemoryError
exception is thrown. This option is enabled, by default, and the parallel GC will throw an OutOfMemoryError
if more than 98% of the total time is spent on garbage collection and less than 2% of the heap is recovered. When the heap is small, this feature can be used to prevent applications from running for long periods of time with little or no progress. To disable this option, specify the option -XX:-UseGCOverheadLimit
.
-XX:+UseNUMA
-XX:+UseParallelGC
).
-XX:+UseParallelGC
Enables the use of the parallel scavenge garbage collector (also known as the throughput collector) to improve the performance of your application by leveraging multiple processors.
By default, this option is disabled and the default collector is used.
-XX:+UseSerialGC
-XX:+UseSHM
Linux only: Enables the JVM to use shared memory to set up large pages.
See Large Pages for setting up large pages.
-XX:+UseStringDeduplication
Enables string deduplication. By default, this option is disabled. To use this option, you must enable the garbage-first (G1) garbage collector.
String deduplication reduces the memory footprint of String
objects on the Java heap by taking advantage of the fact that many String
objects are identical. Instead of each String
object pointing to its own character array, identical String
objects can point to and share the same character array.
-XX:+UseTLAB
-XX:-UseTLAB
.
-XX:+UseZGC
-XX:ZAllocationSpikeTolerance
=factor
-XX:ZCollectionInterval
=seconds
-XX:ZFragmentationLimit
=percent
-XX:+ZProactive
-XX:+ZUncommit
-XX:ZUncommitDelay
=seconds
These java
options are deprecated and might be removed in a future JDK release. They're still accepted and acted upon, but a warning is issued when they're used.
-Xfuture
-Xloggc:
filename
Sets the file to which verbose GC events information should be redirected for logging. The -Xloggc
option overrides -verbose:gc
if both are given with the same java command. -Xloggc:
filename is replaced by -Xlog:gc:
filename. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework.
Example:
-Xlog:gc:garbage-collection.log
-XX:+FlightRecorder
-XX:InitialRAMFraction=
ratio
Sets the initial amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a ratio of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option. The default value is 64.
Use the option -XX:InitialRAMPercentage
instead.
-XX:MaxRAMFraction=
ratio
Sets the maximum amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a fraction of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option. The default value is 4.
Specifying this option disables automatic use of compressed oops if the combined result of this and other options influencing the maximum amount of memory is larger than the range of memory addressable by compressed oops. See -XX:UseCompressedOops
for further information about compressed oops.
Use the option -XX:MaxRAMPercentage
instead.
-XX:MinRAMFraction=
ratio
Sets the maximum amount of memory that the JVM may use for the Java heap before applying ergonomics heuristics as a fraction of the maximum amount determined as described in the -XX:MaxRAM
option for small heaps. A small heap is a heap of approximately 125 MB. The default value is 2.
Use the option -XX:MinRAMPercentage
instead.
-XX:+UseBiasedLocking
Enables the use of biased locking. Some applications with significant amounts of uncontended synchronization may attain significant speedups with this flag enabled, but applications with certain patterns of locking may see slowdowns.
By default, this option is disabled.
These java
options are still accepted but ignored, and a warning is issued when they're used.
--illegal-access=
parameter
These java
options have been removed in JDK 17 and using them results in an error of:
Unrecognized VM option
option-name
-XX:+UseMembar
-XX:MaxPermSize=
size
-XX:MaxMetaspaceSize
option.
-XX:PermSize=
size
-XX:MetaspaceSize
option.
-XX:+TraceClassLoading
Enables tracing of classes as they are loaded. By default, this option is disabled and classes aren't traced.
The replacement Unified Logging syntax is -Xlog:class+load=
level. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework
Use level=info
for regular information, or level=debug
for additional information. In Unified Logging syntax, -verbose:class
equals -Xlog:class+load=info,class+unload=info
.
-XX:+TraceClassLoadingPreorder
Enables tracing of all loaded classes in the order in which they're referenced. By default, this option is disabled and classes aren't traced.
The replacement Unified Logging syntax is -Xlog:class+preorder=debug
. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework.
-XX:+TraceClassResolution
Enables tracing of constant pool resolutions. By default, this option is disabled and constant pool resolutions aren't traced.
The replacement Unified Logging syntax is -Xlog:class+resolve=debug
. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework.
-XX:+TraceLoaderConstraints
Enables tracing of the loader constraints recording. By default, this option is disabled and loader constraints recording isn't traced.
The replacement Unified Logging syntax is -Xlog:class+loader+constraints=info
. See Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging Framework.
For the lists and descriptions of options removed in previous releases see the Removed Java Options section in:
java Command-Line Argument FilesYou can shorten or simplify the java
command by using @
argument files to specify one or more text files that contain arguments, such as options and class names, which are passed to the java
command. This let's you to create java
commands of any length on any operating system.
In the command line, use the at sign (@
) prefix to identify an argument file that contains java
options and class names. When the java
command encounters a file beginning with the at sign (@
), it expands the contents of that file into an argument list just as they would be specified on the command line.
The java
launcher expands the argument file contents until it encounters the --disable-@files
option. You can use the --disable-@files
option anywhere on the command line, including in an argument file, to stop @
argument files expansion.
The following items describe the syntax of java
argument files:
The argument file must contain only ASCII characters or characters in system default encoding that's ASCII friendly, such as UTF-8.
The argument file size must not exceed MAXINT (2,147,483,647) bytes.
The launcher doesn't expand wildcards that are present within an argument file.
Use white space or new line characters to separate arguments included in the file.
White space includes a white space character, \t
, \n
, \r
, and \f
.
For example, it is possible to have a path with a space, such as c:\Program Files
that can be specified as either "c:\\Program Files"
or, to avoid an escape, c:\Program" "Files
.
Any option that contains spaces, such as a path component, must be within quotation marks using quotation ('"') characters in its entirety.
A string within quotation marks may contain the characters \n
, \r
, \t
, and \f
. They are converted to their respective ASCII codes.
If a file name contains embedded spaces, then put the whole file name in double quotation marks.
File names in an argument file are relative to the current directory, not to the location of the argument file.
Use the number sign #
in the argument file to identify comments. All characters following the #
are ignored until the end of line.
Additional at sign @
prefixes to @
prefixed options act as an escape, (the first @
is removed and the rest of the arguments are presented to the launcher literally).
Lines may be continued using the continuation character (\
) at the end-of-line. The two lines are concatenated with the leading white spaces trimmed. To prevent trimming the leading white spaces, a continuation character (\
) may be placed at the first column.
Because backslash (\) is an escape character, a backslash character must be escaped with another backslash character.
Partial quote is allowed and is closed by an end-of-file.
An open quote stops at end-of-line unless \
is the last character, which then joins the next line by removing all leading white space characters.
Wildcards (*) aren't allowed in these lists (such as specifying *.java
).
Use of the at sign (@
) to recursively interpret files isn't supported.
In the argument file,
-cp "lib/
cool/
app/
jars
this is interpreted as:
Example of a Backslash Character Escaped with Another Backslash Character in an Argument File
-cp lib/cool/app/jars
To output the following:
-cp c:\Program Files (x86)\Java\jre\lib\ext;c:\Program Files\Java\jre9\lib\ext
The backslash character must be specified in the argument file as:
Example of an EOL Escape Used to Force Concatenation of Lines in an Argument File
-cp "c:\\Program Files (x86)\\Java\\jre\\lib\\ext;c:\\Program Files\\Java\\jre9\\lib\\ext"
In the argument file,
-cp "/lib/cool app/jars:\
/lib/another app/jars"
This is interpreted as:
Example of Line Continuation with Leading Spaces in an Argument File
-cp /lib/cool app/jars:/lib/another app/jars
In the argument file,
-cp "/lib/cool\
\app/jars???
This is interpreted as:
-cp /lib/cool app/jars
You can use a single argument file, such as myargumentfile
in the following example, to hold all required java
arguments:
Examples of Using Argument Files with Paths
java @myargumentfile
You can include relative paths in argument files; however, they're relative to the current working directory and not to the paths of the argument files themselves. In the following example, path1/options
and path2/options
represent argument files with different paths. Any relative paths that they contain are relative to the current working directory and not to the argument files:
Code Heap State Analytics Overview
java @path1/options @path2/classes
There are occasions when having insight into the current state of the JVM code heap would be helpful to answer questions such as:
Why was the JIT turned off and then on again and again?
Where has all the code heap space gone?
Why is the method sweeper not working effectively?
To provide this insight, a code heap state analytics feature has been implemented that enables on-the-fly analysis of the code heap. The analytics process is divided into two parts. The first part examines the entire code heap and aggregates all information that is believed to be useful or important. The second part consists of several independent steps that print the collected information with an emphasis on different aspects of the data. Data collection and printing are done on an "on request" basis.
SyntaxRequests for real-time, on-the-fly analysis can be issued with the following command:
jcmd
pidCompiler.CodeHeap_Analytics
[function] [granularity]
If you are only interested in how the code heap looks like after running a sample workload, you can use the command line option:
-Xlog:codecache=Trace
To see the code heap state when a "CodeCache full" condition exists, start the VM with the command line option:
-Xlog:codecache=Debug
See CodeHeap State Analytics (OpenJDK) for a detailed description of the code heap state analytics feature, the supported functions, and the granularity options.
Enable Logging with the JVM Unified Logging FrameworkYou use the -Xlog
option to configure or enable logging with the Java Virtual Machine (JVM) unified logging framework.
-Xlog
[:
[what][:
[output][:
[decorators][:
output-options[,
...]]]]]
-Xlog:
directive
+
tag2...][*
][=
level][,
...]. Unless the wildcard (*
) is specified, only log messages tagged with exactly the tags specified are matched. See -Xlog Tags and Levels.
stdout
. See -Xlog Output.
uptime
, level
, and tags
. See Decorations.
-Xlog
logging output options.
The Java Virtual Machine (JVM) unified logging framework provides a common logging system for all components of the JVM. GC logging for the JVM has been changed to use the new logging framework. The mapping of old GC flags to the corresponding new Xlog configuration is described in Convert GC Logging Flags to Xlog. In addition, runtime logging has also been changed to use the JVM unified logging framework. The mapping of legacy runtime logging flags to the corresponding new Xlog configuration is described in Convert Runtime Logging Flags to Xlog.
The following provides quick reference to the -Xlog
command and syntax for options:
-Xlog
info
level.
-Xlog:help
-Xlog
usage syntax and available tags, levels, and decorators along with example command lines with explanations.
-Xlog:disable
-Xlog
[:
option]
Applies multiple arguments in the order that they appear on the command line. Multiple -Xlog
arguments for the same output override each other in their given order.
The option is set as:
[tag-selection][
:
[output][:
[decorators][:
output-options]]]
Omitting the tag-selection defaults to a tag-set of all
and a level of info
.
tag[
+
...]all
The all
tag is a meta tag consisting of all tag-sets available. The asterisk *
in a tag set definition denotes a wildcard tag match. Matching with a wildcard selects all tag sets that contain at least the specified tags. Without the wildcard, only exact matches of the specified tag sets are selected.
output-options is
filecount=
file-countfilesize=
file size with optional K, M or G suffix
When the -Xlog
option and nothing else is specified on the command line, the default configuration is used. The default configuration logs all messages with a level that matches either warning or error regardless of what tags the message is associated with. The default configuration is equivalent to entering the following on the command line:
Controlling Logging at Runtime
-Xlog:all=warning:stdout:uptime,level,tags
Logging can also be controlled at run time through Diagnostic Commands (with the jcmd utility). Everything that can be specified on the command line can also be specified dynamically with the VM.log
command. As the diagnostic commands are automatically exposed as MBeans, you can use JMX to change logging configuration at run time.
Each log message has a level and a tag set associated with it. The level of the message corresponds to its details, and the tag set corresponds to what the message contains or which JVM component it involves (such as, gc
, jit
, or os
). Mapping GC flags to the Xlog configuration is described in Convert GC Logging Flags to Xlog. Mapping legacy runtime logging flags to the corresponding Xlog configuration is described in Convert Runtime Logging Flags to Xlog.
Available log levels:
off
trace
debug
info
warning
error
Available log tags:
There are literally dozens of log tags, which in the right combinations, will enable a range of logging output. The full set of available log tags can be seen using -Xlog:help
. Specifying all
instead of a tag combination matches all tag combinations.
The -Xlog
option supports the following types of outputs:
stdout
--- Sends output to stdoutstderr
--- Sends output to stderrfile=
filename --- Sends output to text file(s).When using file=
filename, specifying %p
and/or %t
in the file name expands to the JVM's PID and startup timestamp, respectively. You can also configure text files to handle file rotation based on file size and a number of files to rotate. For example, to rotate the log file every 10 MB and keep 5 files in rotation, specify the options filesize=10M, filecount=5
. The target size of the files isn't guaranteed to be exact, it's just an approximate value. Files are rotated by default with up to 5 rotated files of target size 20 MB, unless configured otherwise. Specifying filecount=0
means that the log file shouldn't be rotated. There's a possibility of the pre-existing log file getting overwritten.
By default logging messages are output synchronously - each log message is written to the designated output when the logging call is made. But you can instead use asynchronous logging mode by specifying:
-Xlog:async
In asynchronous logging mode, log sites enqueue all logging messages to an intermediate buffer and a standalone thread is responsible for flushing them to the corresponding outputs. The intermediate buffer is bounded and on buffer exhaustion the enqueuing message is discarded. Log entry write operations are guaranteed non-blocking.
The option -XX:AsyncLogBufferSize=N
specifies the memory budget in bytes for the intermediate buffer. The default value should be big enough to cater for most cases. Users can provide a custom value to trade memory overhead for log accuracy if they need to.
Logging messages are decorated with information about the message. You can configure each output to use a custom set of decorators. The order of the output is always the same as listed in the table. You can configure the decorations to be used at run time. Decorations are prepended to the log message. For example:
[6.567s][info][gc,old] Old collection complete
Omitting decorators
defaults to uptime
, level
, and tags
. The none
decorator is special and is used to turn off all decorations.
time
(t
), utctime
(utc
), uptime
(u
), timemillis
(tm
), uptimemillis
(um
), timenanos
(tn
), uptimenanos
(un
), hostname
(hn
), pid
(p
), tid
(ti
), level
(l
), tags
(tg
) decorators can also be specified as none
for no decoration.
time
or t
Current time and date in ISO-8601 format. utctime
or utc
Universal Time Coordinated or Coordinated Universal Time. uptime
or u
Time since the start of the JVM in seconds and milliseconds. For example, 6.567s. timemillis
or tm
The same value as generated by System.currentTimeMillis()
uptimemillis
or um
Milliseconds since the JVM started. timenanos
or tn
The same value generated by System.nanoTime()
. uptimenanos
or un
Nanoseconds since the JVM started. hostname
or hn
The host name. pid
or p
The process identifier. tid
or ti
The thread identifier. level
or l
The level associated with the log message. tags
or tg
The tag-set associated with the log message. Convert GC Logging Flags to Xlog G1PrintHeapRegions
-Xlog:gc+region=trace
Not Applicable GCLogFileSize
No configuration available Log rotation is handled by the framework. NumberOfGCLogFiles
Not Applicable Log rotation is handled by the framework. PrintAdaptiveSizePolicy
-Xlog:gc+ergo*=
level Use a level of debug
for most of the information, or a level of trace
for all of what was logged for PrintAdaptiveSizePolicy
. PrintGC
-Xlog:gc
Not Applicable PrintGCApplicationConcurrentTime
-Xlog:safepoint
Note that PrintGCApplicationConcurrentTime
and PrintGCApplicationStoppedTime
are logged on the same tag and aren't separated in the new logging. PrintGCApplicationStoppedTime
-Xlog:safepoint
Note that PrintGCApplicationConcurrentTime
and PrintGCApplicationStoppedTime
are logged on the same tag and not separated in the new logging. PrintGCCause
Not Applicable GC cause is now always logged. PrintGCDateStamps
Not Applicable Date stamps are logged by the framework. PrintGCDetails
-Xlog:gc*
Not Applicable PrintGCID
Not Applicable GC ID is now always logged. PrintGCTaskTimeStamps
-Xlog:gc+task*=debug
Not Applicable PrintGCTimeStamps
Not Applicable Time stamps are logged by the framework. PrintHeapAtGC
-Xlog:gc+heap=trace
Not Applicable PrintReferenceGC
-Xlog:gc+ref*=debug
Note that in the old logging, PrintReferenceGC
had an effect only if PrintGCDetails
was also enabled. PrintStringDeduplicationStatistics
`-Xlog:gc+stringdedup*=debug ` Not Applicable PrintTenuringDistribution
-Xlog:gc+age*=
level Use a level of debug
for the most relevant information, or a level of trace
for all of what was logged for PrintTenuringDistribution
. UseGCLogFileRotation
Not Applicable What was logged for PrintTenuringDistribution
. Convert Runtime Logging Flags to Xlog
These legacy flags are no longer recognized and will cause an error if used directly. Use their unified logging equivalent instead.
TraceExceptions
-Xlog:exceptions=info
Not Applicable TraceClassLoading
-Xlog:class+load=
level Use level=info
for regular information, or level=debug
for additional information. In Unified Logging syntax, -verbose:class
equals -Xlog:class+load=info,class+unload=info
. TraceClassLoadingPreorder
-Xlog:class+preorder=debug
Not Applicable TraceClassUnloading
-Xlog:class+unload=
level Use level=info
for regular information, or level=trace
for additional information. In Unified Logging syntax, -verbose:class
equals -Xlog:class+load=info,class+unload=info
. VerboseVerification
-Xlog:verification=info
Not Applicable TraceClassPaths
-Xlog:class+path=info
Not Applicable TraceClassResolution
-Xlog:class+resolve=debug
Not Applicable TraceClassInitialization
-Xlog:class+init=info
Not Applicable TraceLoaderConstraints
-Xlog:class+loader+constraints=info
Not Applicable TraceClassLoaderData
-Xlog:class+loader+data=
level Use level=debug
for regular information or level=trace
for additional information. TraceSafepointCleanupTime
-Xlog:safepoint+cleanup=info
Not Applicable TraceSafepoint
-Xlog:safepoint=debug
Not Applicable TraceMonitorInflation
-Xlog:monitorinflation=debug
Not Applicable TraceBiasedLocking
-Xlog:biasedlocking=
level Use level=info
for regular information, or level=trace
for additional information. TraceRedefineClasses
-Xlog:redefine+class*=
level level=info
, debug
, and trace
provide increasing amounts of information. -Xlog Usage Examples
The following are -Xlog
examples.
-Xlog
Logs all messages by using the info
level to stdout
with uptime
, levels
, and tags
decorations. This is equivalent to using:
-Xlog:all=info:stdout:uptime,levels,tags
-Xlog:gc
gc
tag using info
level to stdout
. The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is in effect.
-Xlog:gc,safepoint
gc
or safepoint
tags, both using the info
level, to stdout
, with default decorations. Messages tagged with both gc
and safepoint
won't be logged.
-Xlog:gc+ref=debug
gc
and ref
tags, using the debug
level to stdout
, with default decorations. Messages tagged only with one of the two tags won't be logged.
-Xlog:gc=debug:file=gc.txt:none
gc
tag using the debug
level to a file called gc.txt
with no decorations. The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is still in effect.
-Xlog:gc=trace:file=gctrace.txt:uptimemillis,pids:filecount=5,filesize=1024
Logs messages tagged with the gc
tag using the trace
level to a rotating file set with 5 files with size 1 MB with the base name gctrace.txt
and uses decorations uptimemillis
and pid
.
The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is still in effect.
-Xlog:gc::uptime,tid
gc
tag using the default 'info' level to default the output stdout
and uses decorations uptime
and tid
. The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is still in effect.
-Xlog:gc*=info,safepoint*=off
gc
using the info
level, but turns off logging of messages tagged with safepoint
. Messages tagged with both gc
and safepoint
won't be logged.
-Xlog:disable -Xlog:safepoint=trace:safepointtrace.txt
safepoint
using trace
level to the file safepointtrace.txt
. The default configuration doesn't apply, because the command line started with -Xlog:disable
.
The following describes a few complex examples of using the -Xlog
option.
-Xlog:gc+class*=debug
gc
and class
tags using the debug
level to stdout
. The default configuration for all other messages at the level warning
is still in effect
-Xlog:gc+meta*=trace,class*=off:file=gcmetatrace.txt
gc
and meta
tags using the trace
level to the file metatrace.txt
but turns off all messages tagged with class
. Messages tagged with gc
, meta
, and class
aren't be logged as class*
is set to off. The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is in effect except for those that include class
.
-Xlog:gc+meta=trace
gc
and meta
tags using the trace
level to stdout
. The default configuration for all other messages at level warning
is still be in effect.
-Xlog:gc+class+heap*=debug,meta*=warning,threads*=off
gc
, class
, and heap
tags using the trace
level to stdout
but only log messages tagged with meta
with level. The default configuration for all other messages at the level warning
is in effect except for those that include threads
.
You use values provided to all Java Virtual Machine (JVM) command-line flags for validation and, if the input value is invalid or out-of-range, then an appropriate error message is displayed.
Whether they're set ergonomically, in a command line, by an input tool, or through the APIs (for example, classes contained in the package java.lang.management
) the values provided to all Java Virtual Machine (JVM) command-line flags are validated. Ergonomics are described in Java Platform, Standard Edition HotSpot Virtual Machine Garbage Collection Tuning Guide.
Range and constraints are validated either when all flags have their values set during JVM initialization or a flag's value is changed during runtime (for example using the jcmd
tool). The JVM is terminated if a value violates either the range or constraint check and an appropriate error message is printed on the error stream.
For example, if a flag violates a range or a constraint check, then the JVM exits with an error:
java -XX:AllocatePrefetchStyle=5 -version
intx AllocatePrefetchStyle=5 is outside the allowed range [ 0 ... 3 ]
Improperly specified VM option 'AllocatePrefetchStyle=5'
Error: Could not create the Java Virtual Machine.
Error: A fatal exception has occurred. Program will exit.
The flag -XX:+PrintFlagsRanges
prints the range of all the flags. This flag allows automatic testing of the flags by the values provided by the ranges. For the flags that have the ranges specified, the type, name, and the actual range is printed in the output.
For example,
intx ThreadStackSize [ 0 ... 9007199254740987 ] {pd product}
For the flags that don't have the range specified, the values aren't displayed in the print out. For example:
size_t NewSize [ ... ] {product}
This helps to identify the flags that need to be implemented. The automatic testing framework can skip those flags that don't have values and aren't implemented.
Large PagesYou use large pages, also known as huge pages, as memory pages that are significantly larger than the standard memory page size (which varies depending on the processor and operating system). Large pages optimize processor Translation-Lookaside Buffers.
A Translation-Lookaside Buffer (TLB) is a page translation cache that holds the most-recently used virtual-to-physical address translations. A TLB is a scarce system resource. A TLB miss can be costly because the processor must then read from the hierarchical page table, which may require multiple memory accesses. By using a larger memory page size, a single TLB entry can represent a larger memory range. This results in less pressure on a TLB, and memory-intensive applications may have better performance.
However, using large pages can negatively affect system performance. For example, when a large amount of memory is pinned by an application, it may create a shortage of regular memory and cause excessive paging in other applications and slow down the entire system. Also, a system that has been up for a long time could produce excessive fragmentation, which could make it impossible to reserve enough large page memory. When this happens, either the OS or JVM reverts to using regular pages.
Linux and Windows support large pages.
Large Pages Support for LinuxLinux supports large pages since version 2.6. To check if your environment supports large pages, try the following:
# cat /proc/meminfo | grep Huge
HugePages_Total: 0
HugePages_Free: 0
...
Hugepagesize: 2048 kB
If the output contains items prefixed with "Huge", then your system supports large pages. The values may vary depending on environment. The Hugepagesize
field shows the default large page size in your environment, and the other fields show details for large pages of this size. Newer kernels have support for multiple large page sizes. To list the supported page sizes, run this:
# ls /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/
hugepages-1048576kB hugepages-2048kB
The above environment supports 2 MB and 1 GB large pages, but they need to be configured so that the JVM can use them. When using large pages and not enabling transparent huge pages (option -XX:+UseTransparentHugePages
), the number of large pages must be pre-allocated. For example, to enable 8 GB of memory to be backed by 2 MB large pages, login as root
and run:
# echo 4096 > /sys/kernel/mm/hugepages/hugepages-2048kB/nr_hugepages
It is always recommended to check the value of nr_hugepages
after the request to make sure the kernel was able to allocate the requested number of large pages.
When using the option -XX:+UseSHM
to enable large pages you also need to make sure the SHMMAX
parameter is configured to allow large enough shared memory segments to be allocated. To allow a maximum shared segment of 8 GB, login as root
and run:
# echo 8589934592 > /proc/sys/kernel/shmmax
In some environments this is not needed since the default value is large enough, but it is important to make sure the value is large enough to fit the amount of memory intended to be backed by large pages.
Note: The values contained in
/proc
and/sys
reset after you reboot your system, so may want to set them in an initialization script (for example,rc.local
orsysctl.conf
).
If you configure the OS kernel parameters to enable use of large pages, the Java processes may allocate large pages for the Java heap as well as other internal areas, for example:
Consequently, if you configure the nr_hugepages
parameter to the size of the Java heap, then the JVM can still fail to allocate the heap using large pages because other areas such as the code cache might already have used some of the configured large pages.
To use large pages support on Windows, the administrator must first assign additional privileges to the user who is running the application:
Note that these steps are required even if it's the administrator who's running the application, because administrators by default don't have the privilege to lock pages in memory.
Application Class Data SharingApplication Class Data Sharing (AppCDS) stores classes used by your applications in an archive file. Since these classes are stored in a format that can be loaded very quickly (compared to classes stored in a JAR file), AppCDS can improve the start-up time of your applications. In addition, AppCDS can reduce the runtime memory footprint by sharing parts of these classes across multiple processes.
Classes in the CDS archive are stored in an optimized format that's about 2 to 5 times larger than classes stored in JAR files or the JDK runtime image. Therefore, it's a good idea to archive only those classes that are actually used by your application. These usually are just a small portion of all available classes. For example, your application may use only a few APIs provided by a large library.
Using CDS ArchivesBy default, in most JDK distributions, unless -Xshare:off
is specified, the JVM starts up with a default CDS archive, which is usually located in JAVA_HOME/lib/server/classes.jsa
(or JAVA_HOME\bin\server\classes.jsa
on Windows). This archive contains about 1300 core library classes that are used by most applications.
To use CDS for the exact set of classes used by your application, you can use the -XX:SharedArchiveFile
option, which has the general form:
-XX:SharedArchiveFile=<static_archive>:<dynamic_archive>
<static_archive>
overrides the default CDS archive.<dynamic_archive>
provides additional classes that can be loaded on top of those in the <static_archive>
.:
should be replaced with ;
(The names "static" and "dyanmic" are used for historical reasons. The only significance is that the "static" archive is loaded first and the "dynamic" archive is loaded second).
The JVM can use up to two archives. To use only a single <static_archive>
, you can omit the <dynamic_archive>
portion:
-XX:SharedArchiveFile=<static_archive>
For convenience, the <dynamic_archive>
records the location of the <static_archive>
. Therefore, you can omit the <static_archive>
by saying only:
Creating CDS Archives
-XX:SharedArchiveFile=<dynamic_archive>
CDS archives can be created with several methods:
-Xshare:dump
-XX:ArchiveClassesAtExit
jcmd VM.cds
One common operation in all these methods is a "trial run", where you run the application once to determine the classes that should be stored in the archive.
The following steps create a static CDS archive file that contains all the classes used by the test.Hello
application.
Create a list of all classes used by the test.Hello
application. The following command creates a file named hello.classlist
that contains a list of all classes used by this application:
java -Xshare:off -XX:DumpLoadedClassList=hello.classlist -cp hello.jar test.Hello
The classpath specified by the -cp
parameter must contain only JAR files.
Create a static archive, named hello.jsa
, that contains all the classes in hello.classlist
:
java -Xshare:dump -XX:SharedArchiveFile=hello.jsa -XX:SharedClassListFile=hello.classlist -cp hello.jar
Run the application test.Hello
with the archive hello.jsa
:
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar test.Hello
Optional Verify that the test.Hello
application is using the class contained in the hello.jsa
shared archive:
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar -Xlog:class+load test.Hello
The output of this command should contain the following text:
[info][class,load] test.Hello source: shared objects file
Advantages of dynamic CDS archives are:
The following steps create a dynamic CDS archive file that contains the classes that are used by the test.Hello
application, excluding those that are already in the default CDS archive.
Create a dynamic CDS archive, named hello.jsa
, that contains all the classes in hello.jar
loaded by the application test.Hello
:
java -XX:ArchiveClassesAtExit=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar Hello
Run the application test.Hello
with the shared archive hello.jsa
:
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar test.Hello
Optional Repeat step 4 of the previous section to verify that the test.Hello
application is using the class contained in the hello.jsa
shared archive.
It's also possible to create a dynamic CDS archive with a non-default static CDS archive. E.g.,
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=base.jsa -XX:ArchiveClassesAtExit=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar Hello
To run the application using this dynamic CDS archive:
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=base.jsa:hello.jsa -cp hello.jar Hello
(On Windows, the above path delimiter :
should be replaced with ;
)
As mention above, the name of the static archive can be skipped:
Creating CDS Archive Files with jcmd
java -XX:SharedArchiveFile=hello.jsa -cp hello.jar Hello
The previous two sections require you to modify the application's start-up script in order to create a CDS archive. Sometimes this could be difficult, for example, if the application's class path is set up by complex routines.
The jcmd VM.cds
command provides a less intrusive way for creating a CDS archive by connecting to a running JVM process. You can create either a static:
jcmd <pid> VM.cds static_dump my_static_archive.jsa
or a dynamic archive:
jcmd <pid> VM.cds dynamic_dump my_dynamic_archive.jsa
To use the resulting archive file in a subsequent run of the application without modifying the application's start-up script, you can use the following technique:
env JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-XX:SharedArchiveFile=my_static_archive.jsa bash app_start.sh
Note: to use jcmd <pid> VM.cds dynamic_dump
, the JVM process identified by <pid>
must be started with -XX:+RecordDynamicDumpInfo
, which can also be passed to the application start-up script with the same technique:
Restrictions on Class Path and Module Path
env JAVA_TOOL_OPTIONS=-XX:+RecordDynamicDumpInfo bash app_start.sh
Neither the class path (-classpath
and -Xbootclasspath/a
) nor the module path (--module-path
) can contain non-empty directories.
Only modular JAR files are supported in --module-path
. Exploded modules are not supported.
The class path used at archive creation time must be the same as (or a prefix of) the class path used at run time. (There's no such requirement for the module path.)
The CDS archive cannot be loaded if any JAR files in the class path or module path are modified after the archive is generated.
If any of the VM options --upgrade-module-path
, --patch-module
or --limit-modules
are specified, CDS is disabled. This means that the JVM will execute without loading any CDS archives. In addition, if you try to create a CDS archive with any of these 3 options specified, the JVM will report an error.
You can use the Java advanced runtime options to optimize the performance of your applications.
Tuning for Higher ThroughputUse the following commands and advanced options to achieve higher throughput performance for your application:
Tuning for Lower Response Time
java -server -XX:+UseParallelGC -XX:+UseLargePages -Xmn10g -Xms26g -Xmx26g
Use the following commands and advanced options to achieve lower response times for your application:
Keeping the Java Heap Small and Reducing the Dynamic Footprint of Embedded Applications
java -XX:+UseG1GC -XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=100
Use the following advanced runtime options to keep the Java heap small and reduce the dynamic footprint of embedded applications:
-XX:MaxHeapFreeRatio=10 -XX:MinHeapFreeRatio=5
Exit StatusNote: The defaults for these two options are 70% and 40% respectively. Because performance sacrifices can occur when using these small settings, you should optimize for a small footprint by reducing these settings as much as possible without introducing unacceptable performance degradation.
The following exit values are typically returned by the launcher when the launcher is called with the wrong arguments, serious errors, or exceptions thrown by the JVM. However, a Java application may choose to return any value by using the API call System.exit(exitValue)
. The values are:
0
: Successful completion
>0
: An error occurred
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