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Java Platform, Standard Edition Troubleshooting Guide
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2.14 The jmap Utility

The jmap command-line utility prints memory-related statistics for a running VM or core file.

The utility can also use the jsadebugd daemon to query a process or core file on a remote machine. Note: The output takes longer to print in this case.

The release of JDK 8 introduced Java Mission Control, Java Flight Recorder, and jcmd utility for diagnosing problems with JVM and Java applications. It is suggested to use the latest utility, jcmd instead of the previous jmap utility for enhanced diagnostics and reduced performance overhead.

If jmap is used with a process or core file without any command-line options, then it prints the list of shared objects loaded (the output is similar to the pmap utility on Oracle Solaris operating system). For more specific information, you can use the options -heap, -histo, or -permstat. These options are described in the subsections that follow.

In addition, the JDK 7 release introduced the -dump:format=b,file=filename option, which causes jmap to dump the Java heap in binary HPROF format to a specified file. This file can then be analyzed with the jhat tool.

If the jmap pid command does not respond because of a hung process, then the -F option can be used (on Oracle Solaris and Linux operating systems only) to force the use of the Serviceability Agent.

For more details on the jmap utility, see the jmap command man page.

The following sections describe jmap command usage and troubleshooting techniques with examples that print memory-related statistics for a running VM or a core file.

2.14.1 Heap Configuration and Usage

The -heap option is used to obtain the following Java heap information:

  • Information specific to the garbage collection (GC) algorithm, including the name of the GC algorithm (for example, parallel GC) and algorithm-specific details (such as number of threads for parallel GC).

  • Heap configuration that might have been specified as command-line options or selected by the VM based on the machine configuration.

  • Heap usage summary: For each generation (area of the heap), the tool prints the total heap capacity, in-use memory, and available free memory. If a generation is organized as a collection of spaces (for example, the new generation), then a space specific memory size summary is included.

Example 2-22 shows output from the jmap -heap command.

2.14.2 Heap Histogram

The jmap command with the -histo option can be used to obtain a class specific histogram of the heap. Depending on the parameter specified, the jmap -histo command can print out the heap histogram for a running process or a core file.

When the command is executed on a running process, the tool prints the number of objects, memory size in bytes, and fully qualified class name for each class. Internal classes in the Java HotSpot VM are enclosed in angle brackets. The histogram is useful in understanding how the heap is used. To get the size of an object, you must divide the total size by the count of that object type.

Example 2-23 shows output from the jmap -histo command when it is executed on a process with PID number 29620.

When the jmap -histo command is executed on a core file, the tool prints the size, count, and class name for each class. Internal classes in the Java HotSpot VM are prefixed with an asterisk (*).

Example 2-24 shows output of the jmap -histo command when it is executed on a core file.

2.14.3 Permanent Generation Statistics

The permanent generation is the area of the heap that holds all the reflective data of the virtual machine itself, such as class and method objects. This area is also called "method area" in The Java Virtual Machine Specification.

Configuring the size of the permanent generation can be important for applications that dynamically generate and load a very large number of classes (for example, Java Server Pages or web containers). If an application loads too many classes, then it is possible it will terminate with the following error:

Exception in thread thread_name java.lang.OutOfMemoryError: PermGen space

For a description of this and other variants of the OutOfMemoryError exception, see Understand the OutOfMemoryError Exception.

To get further information about the permanent generation, you can use the -permstat option of the jmap command to print statistics for the objects in the permanent generation.

Example 2-25 shows output from the jmap -permstat command executed on a process with PID number 29620.

Example 2-25 Permanent Generation Statistics of Java Heap for a Process

$ jmap -permstat 29620
Attaching to process ID 29620, please wait...
Debugger attached successfully.
Client compiler detected.
JVM version is 1.6.0-rc-b100
12674 intern Strings occupying 1082616 bytes.
finding class loader instances ..Unknown oop at 0xd0400900
Oop's klass is 0xd0bf8408
Unknown oop at 0xd0401100
Oop's klass is null
done.
computing per loader stat ..done.
please wait.. computing liveness.........................................done.
class_loader    classes bytes   parent_loader   alive?  type

<bootstrap>     1846 5321080  null        live   <internal>
0xd0bf3828  0      0      null         live    sun/misc/Launcher$ExtClassLoader@0xd8c98c78
0xd0d2f370  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0c99280  1   1440      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0b71d90  0      0   0xd0b5b9c0    live java/util/ResourceBundle$RBClassLoader@0xd8d042e8
0xd0d2f4c0  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0b5bf98  1    920   0xd0b5bf38      dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0c99248  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f488  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0b5bf38  6   11832  0xd0b5b9c0      dead    sun/reflect/misc/MethodUtil@0xd8e8e560
0xd0d2f338  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f418  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f3a8  1    904     null          dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0b5b9c0  317 1397448 0xd0bf3828     live    sun/misc/Launcher$AppClassLoader@0xd8cb83d8
0xd0d2f300  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f3e0  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0ec3968  1   1440      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0e0a248  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0c99210  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f450  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0d2f4f8  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50
0xd0e0a280  1    904      null         dead    sun/reflect/DelegatingClassLoader@0xd8c22f50

total = 22      2186    6746816   N/A   alive=4, dead=18       N/A    

For each class loader object, the following details are printed:

  • The address of the class loader object at the snapshot when the utility was run

  • The number of classes loaded

  • The approximate number of bytes consumed by metadata for all classes loaded by this class loader

  • The address of the parent class loader (if any)

  • A live or dead indication of whether the loader object will be garbage collected in the future

  • The class name of this class loader

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