This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
This chapter is from the book
Summary
Effective debugging of tricky application problems in the managed heap and garbage collector requires a solid internal understanding of how these components work. In this chapter, we took a detailed tour of how the CLR heap manager and garbage collector functions. We started by looking at the high-level architecture and how the CLR heap manager fits into the overall Windows memory architecture followed by an in-depth discussion of the various concepts (generations, roots, finalization, etc.) utilized by the garbage collector. Sample code was shown in tandem with the debugger and associated tools to illustrate how these concepts work in practice. Lastly, we looked at a number of examples of common programming mistakes and how they manifest themselves in the CLR. The examples included how to track down the source of heap corruptions on the managed heap, how to track down the source of out-of-memory situations, and how to debug faulty finalization code.