245. Covering some garbage collector terminology
Garbage collection has its own terminology that it is essential to know in order to better understand how it works. Some of these terms are presented here; we start with epoch, single pass, and multiple passes.
Epoch
A GC works in cycles. A complete cycle of a GC is known as an epoch.
Single and multiple passes
A GC can handle its internal steps in a single pass (single-pass) or multiple passes (multi-pass). In the case of single-pass, the GC groups multiple steps and handles them in a single run. On the other hand, in the case of multi-pass, the GC handles multiple steps in a sequence of several passes.
Serial and parallel
A GC is considered serial if it uses a single thread. On the other hand, a GC is considered parallel if it uses multiple threads.
Stop-the-World (STW) and concurrent
A GC is of the type Stop-the-World (STW) if it has to stop (temporarily suspend) the application execution in order...