HotSpot JVM garbage collection options cheat sheet (v2)

Updated version is available!

In this article I have collected a list of options related to GC tuning in JVM. This is not a comprehensive list, I have only collected options which I use in practice (or at least understand why I may want to use them).

Compared to previous version a few useful diagnostic options was added. Additionally section for G1 specific options was introduced.

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HotSpot GC collectors

HotSpot JVM may use one of 6 combinations of garbage collection algorithms listed below.

Young collector	Old collector	JVM option
Serial (DefNew)	Serial Mark-Sweep-Compact	-XX:+UseSerialGC
Parallel scavenge (PSYoungGen)	Serial Mark-Sweep-Compact (PSOldGen)	-XX:+UseParallelGC
Parallel scavenge (PSYoungGen)	Parallel Mark-Sweep-Compact (ParOldGen)	-XX:+UseParallelOldGC
Serial (DefNew)	Concurrent Mark Sweep	-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:-UseParNewGC
Parallel (ParNew)	Concurrent Mark Sweep	-XX:+UseConcMarkSweepGC -XX:+UseParNewGC
G1		-XX:+UseG1GC

GC logging options

Please note that many of logging options could be modified on running JVM using JMX (e.g. via JConsole).

JVM option	Description
General options
-verbose:gc or -XX:+PrintGC	Print basic GC info
-XX:+PrintGCDetails	Print more elaborated GC info
-XX:+PrintGCTimeStamps	Print timestamps for each GC event (seconds count from start of JVM)
-XX:+PrintGCDateStamps	Print date stamps at garbage collection events (e.g. 2011-09-08T14:20:29.557+0400: [GC... )
-XX:+PrintGC\ TaskTimeStamps	Print timestamps for individual GC worker thread tasks (very verbose)
-Xloggc:	Redirects GC output to a file instead of console
-XX:+Print\ TenuringDistribution	Print detailed demography of young space after each collection
-XX:+PrintTLAB	Print TLAB allocation statistics
-XX:+PrintReferenceGC	Print times for weak/soft/JNI/etc reference processing during STW pause
-XX:+PrintJNIGCStalls	Reports if GC is waiting for native code to unpin object in memory
-XX:+PrintGC\ ApplicationStoppedTime	Print pause summary after each stop-the-world pause
-XX:+PrintGC\ ApplicationConcurrentTime	Print time for each concurrent phase of GC
-XX:+Print\ ClassHistogramAfterFullGC	Prints class histogram after full GC
-XX:+Print\ ClassHistogramBeforeFullGC	Prints class histogram before full GC
-XX:+HeapDump\ AfterFullGC	Creates heap dump file after full GC
-XX:+HeapDump\ BeforeFullGC	Creates heap dump file before full GC
-XX:+HeapDump\ OnOutOfMemoryError	Creates heap dump in out-of-memory condition
-XX:HeapDumpPath=<path>	Specifies path to save heap dumps
CMS specific options
-XX:PrintCMSStatistics=2	Print additional CMS statistics if n >= 1
-XX:+Print\ CMSInitiationStatistics	Print CMS initiation details
-XX:PrintFLSStatistics=2	Print additional info concerning free lists
-XX:PrintFLSCensus=2	Print additional info concerning free lists
-XX:+PrintPromotionFailure	Print additional diagnostic information following promotion failure
-XX:+CMSDumpAt\ PromotionFailure	Dump useful information about the state of the CMS old generation upon a promotion failure.
-XX:+CMSPrint\ ChunksInDump	In a CMS dump enabled by option above, include more detailed information about the free chunks.
-XX:+CMSPrint\ ObjectsInDump	In a CMS dump enabled by option above, include more detailed information about the allocated objects.

JVM sizing options

JVM option	Description
-Xms2048m -Xmx2g or ‑XX:InitialHeapSize=2g ‑XX:MaxHeapSize=2g	Initial and max size of heap space (young space + tenured space). Permanent space does not count to this size.
-XX:NewSize=64m -XX:MaxNewSize=64m	Initial and max size of young space.
-XX:NewRatio=3	Alternative way to specify young space size. Sets ration of young vs tenured space (e.g. -XX:NewRatio=2 means that young space will be 2 time smaller than tenuted space).
-XX:SurvivorRatio=15	Sets size of single survivor space as a portion of Eden space size (e.g. -XX:NewSize=64m -XX:SurvivorRatio=6 means that each survivor space will be 8m and eden will be 48m).
-XX:PermSize=256m -XX:MaxPermSize=256m	Initial and max size of permanent space.
-Xss256k (size in bytes) or   -XX:ThreadStackSize=256 (size in Kbytes)	Sets size of stack area dedicated to each thread. Thread stacks do not count to heap size.
-XX:MaxDirectMemorySize=2g	Maximum size of off-heap memory available for JVM

Young collection tuning

JVM option	Description
-XX:Initial\ TenuringThreshold=8	Initial value for tenuring threshold (number of collections before object will be promoted to tenured space).
-XX:Max\ TenuringThreshold=15	Max value for tenuring threshold.
-XX:Pretenure\ SizeThreshold=2m	Max object size allowed to be allocated in young space (large objects will be allocated directly in old space). Thread local allocation bypasses this check so if TLAB is large enough object exciding size threshold still may be allocated in young.
-XX:+AlwaysTenure	Promote all objects surviving young collection immediately to tenured space (equivalent of -XX:MaxTenuringThreshold=0)
-XX:+NeverTenure	Objects from young space will never get promoted to tenured space while survivor space is large enough to keep them.
Thread local allocation blocks
-XX:+UseTLAB	Use thread local allocation blocks in young space. Enabled by default.
-XX:+ResizeTLAB	Allow JVM to adaptively resize TLAB for threads.
-XX:TLABSize=1m	Initial size of TLAB for thread
-XX:MinTLABSize=64k	Minimal allowed size of TLAB

CMS tuning options

JVM option	Description
Controlling initial mark phase
-XX:+UseCMSInitiating\ OccupancyOnly	Only use occupancy as a criterion for starting a CMS collection.
-XX:CMSInitiating\ OccupancyFraction=70	Percentage CMS generation occupancy to start a CMS collection cycle. A negative value means that CMSTriggerRatio is used.
-XX:CMSBootstrap\ Occupancy=10	Percentage CMS generation occupancy at which to initiate CMS collection for bootstrapping collection stats.
-XX:CMSTriggerRatio=70	Percentage of MinHeapFreeRatio in CMS generation that is allocated before a CMS collection cycle commences.
-XX:CMSTriggerPermRatio=90	Percentage of MinHeapFreeRatio in the CMS perm generation that is allocated before a CMS collection cycle commences, that also collects the perm generation.
-XX:CMSWaitDuration=2000	Once CMS collection is triggered, it will wait for next young collection to perform initial mark right after. This parameter specifies how long CMS can wait for young collection.
Controlling remark phase
-XX:+CMSParallel\ RemarkEnabled	Whether parallel remark enabled (only if ParNewGC), enabled by default
-XX:+CMSParallel\ SurvivorRemarkEnabled	Whether parallel remark of survivor space enabled (effective only with option above), enabled by default
-XX:+CMSScavengeBeforeRemark	Force young collection before remark phase.
-XX:+CMSScheduleRemark\ EdenSizeThreshold	If Eden used is below this value, don't try to schedule remark
-XX:CMSScheduleRemark\ EdenPenetration=20	The Eden occupancy % at which to try and schedule remark pause
-XX:CMSScheduleRemark\ SamplingRatio=4	Start sampling Eden top at least before young generation occupancy reaches 1/ of the size at which we plan to schedule remark
-XX:CMSRemarkVerifyVariant=1	Choose variant (1,2) of verification following remark
Parallel execution
-XX:+UseParNewGC	Use parallel algorithm for young space collection.
-XX:+CMSConcurrentMTEnabled	Use multiple threads for concurrent phases.
-XX:ConcGCThreads=2	Number of parallel threads used for concurrent phase.
-XX:ParallelGCThreads=2	Number of parallel threads used for stop-the-world phases.
CMS incremental mode
-XX:+CMSIncrementalMode	Enable incremental CMS mode. Incremental mode is meant for severs with small number of CPU. Do not use it on modern hardware.
Miscellaneous options
-XX:+CMSClassUnloadingEnabled	If not enabled, CMS will not clean permanent space. You should always enable it in multiple class loader environments such as JEE or OSGi.
-XX:+ExplicitGCInvokes\ Concurrent	Let System.gc() trigger concurrent collection instead of full GC.
‑XX:+ExplicitGCInvokes\ ConcurrentAndUnloadsClasses	Same as above but also triggers permanent space collection.

Miscellaneous GC options

JVM option	Description
-XX:+DisableExplicitGC	JVM will ignore application calls to System.gc()
-XX:SoftRefLRU\ PolicyMSPerMB=1000	Soft references time to live in milliseconds per MB of free space in the heap
OutOfMemoryError conditions
-XX:+UseGCOverheadLimit	Use policy to limit of proportion of time spent in GC before an OutOfMemory error is thrown
-XX:GCTimeLimit=98	Limit of proportion of time spent in GC before an OutOfMemory error is thrown (used with GCHeapFreeLimit)
-XX:GCHeapFreeLimit=2	Minimum percentage of free space after a full GC before an OutOfMemoryError is thrown (used with GCTimeLimit)

G1 (garbage first) GC options

G1 is still evolving, so table below have known supported JVM version column

JVM option	JVM	Description
-XX:G1HeapRegionSize=8m	6u26	Size of heap region for G1 collector. Region size could be from 1MiB to 32MiB. Default is initial heap size / 2048.
-XX:G1ConfidencePercent=50	6u26	Confidence coefficient for G1 pause prediction heuristics
-XX:G1ReservePercent=10	6u26	It determines the minimum reserve we should have in the heap to minimize the probability of promotion failure
-XX:MaxGCPauseMillis=200	6u26	GC time per MMU time slice in milliseconds (for G1 only)
-XX:GCPauseIntervalMillis=300	6u26	Time slice for MMU specification in milliseconds (for G1 only). Should be greater than parameter above.