garbage collection

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

English

[edit]

Noun

[edit]

garbage collection (usually uncountable, plural garbage collections)

  1. (Canada, US) A service, generally run by local government, for transporting household garbage to the appropriate facility.
    Synonym: rubbish collection
  2. (programming) An automatic mechanism that frees up resources (such as allocated memory) that are no longer in use.
    Synonym: GC
    • [2002, Patrick Niemeyer, Jonathan Knudsen, Learning Java, O'Reilly, →ISBN, page 135:
      Java uses a technique known as garbage collection to remove objects that are no longer needed. The garbage collector is Java's grim reaper.]
    • 2016, Richard Jones, Antony Hosking, Eliot Moss, The Garbage Collection Handbook[1], CRC Press, →ISBN:
      Generational garbage collection has proved to be a highly effective organisation, offering significant performance improvements for a wide range of applications.

Derived terms

[edit]
[edit]

Translations

[edit]