Unreachable memory

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In

that the program cannot reach directly, nor get to by starting at an object it can reach directly, and then following a chain of pointer references.

In dynamic memory allocation implementations that employ a

) use automatic garbage collection.

In contrast, when memory becomes unreachable in dynamic memory allocation implementations that require explicit deallocation, the memory can no longer be explicitly deallocated. Unreachable memory in systems that use manual memory management results in a memory leak.

Some garbage collectors implement

supports soft, weak and phantom references, resulting in the additional object reachability states softly reachable and phantom reachable.

Unreachable memory (in languages, like C, that do not reclaim) is often associated with software aging.

External links

• Nicholas, Ethan (4 May 2006). "Understanding Weak References". java.net. Archived from the original on 19 August 2010. Retrieved 1 October 2010.