<div class="d7"><div class="d7v9"><div class="cornerBL"><div class="cornerBR"><!--StartFragment-->This document provides information on typical command-line options and environment variables that can affect the performance characteristics of the Java HotSpot Virtual Machine. Unless otherwise noted, all information in this document pertains to both the Java HotSpot Client VM and the Java HotSpot Server VM.
Users of JDKs older than 1.3.0 who wish to port to a Java HotSpot VM, should see Java HotSpot Equivalents of Exact VM flags.
Categories of Java HotSpot VM Options
Standard options recognized by the Java HotSpot VM are described on the Java Application Launcher reference pages for Windows, Solaris and Linux. This document deals exclusively with non-standard options recognized by the Java HotSpot VM:
- Options that begin with -X are non-standard (not guaranteed to be supported on all VM implementations), and are subject to change without notice in subsequent releases of the JDK.
- Options that are specified with -XX are not stable and are not recommended for casual use. These options are subject to change without notice.
Some Useful -XX Options
Default values are listed for Java SE 6 for Solaris Sparc with -server. Some options may vary per architecture/OS/JVM version. Platforms with a differing default value are listed in the description.
- Boolean options are turned on with -XX:+<option> and turned off with -XX:-<option>.
- Numeric options are set with -XX:<option>=<number>. Numbers can include 'm' or 'M' for megabytes, 'k' or 'K' for kilobytes, and 'g' or 'G' for gigabytes (for example, 32k is the same as 32768).
- String options are set with -XX:<option>=<string>, are usually used to specify a file, a path, or a list of commands
Flags marked as manageable are dynamically writeable through the JDK management interface (com.sun.management.HotSpotDiagnosticMXBean API) and also through JConsole. In Monitoring and Managing Java SE 6 Platform Applications, Figure 3 shows an example. The manageable flags can also be set through jinfo -flag.
The options below are loosely grouped into three categories.
Behavioral Options
[table=98%][tr]Option and Default Value
Description[/tr] |
| -XX:-AllowUserSignalHandlers | Do not complain if the application installs signal handlers. (Relevant to Solaris and Linux only.)
|
| -XX:AltStackSize=16384 | Alternate signal stack size (in Kbytes). (Relevant to Solaris only, removed from 5.0.)
|
| -XX:-DisableExplicitGC | Disable calls to System.gc(), JVM still performs garbage collection when necessary.
|
| -XX:+FailOverToOldVerifier | Fail over to old verifier when the new type checker fails. (Introduced in 6.)
|
| -XX:+HandlePromotionFailure | The youngest generation collection does not require a guarantee of full promotion of all live objects. (Introduced in 1.4.2 update 11) [5.0 and earlier: false.]
|
| -XX:+MaxFDLimit | Bump the number of file descriptors to max. (Relevant to Solaris only.)
|
| -XX:PreBlockSpin=10 | Spin count variable for use with -XX:+UseSpinning. Controls the maximum spin iterations allowed before entering operating system thread synchronization code. (Introduced in 1.4.2.)
|
| -XX:-RelaxAccessControlCheck | Relax the access control checks in the verifier. (Introduced in 6.)
|
| -XX:+ScavengeBeforeFullGC | Do young generation GC prior to a full GC. (Introduced in 1.4.1.)
|
| -XX:+UseAltSigs | Use alternate signals instead of SIGUSR1 and SIGUSR2 for VM internal signals. (Introduced in 1.3.1 update 9, 1.4.1. Relevant to Solaris only.)
|
| -XX:+UseBoundThreads | Bind user level threads to kernel threads. (Relevant to Solaris only.)
|
| -XX:-UseConcMarkSweepGC | Use concurrent mark-sweep collection for the old generation. (Introduced in 1.4.1)
|
| -XX:+UseGCOverheadLimit | Use a policy that limits the proportion of the VM's time that is spent in GC before an OutOfMemory error is thrown. (Introduced in 6.)
|
| -XX:+UseLWPSynchronization | Use LWP-based instead of thread based synchronization. (Introduced in 1.4.0. Relevant to Solaris only.)
|
| -XX:-UseParallelGC | Use parallel garbage collection for scavenges. (Introduced in 1.4.1)
|
| -XX:-UseParallelOldGC | Use parallel garbage collection for the full collections. Enabling this option automatically sets -XX:+UseParallelGC. (Introduced in 5.0 update 6.)
|
| -XX:-UseSerialGC | Use serial garbage collection. (Introduced in 5.0.)
|
| -XX:-UseSpinning | Enable naive spinning on Java monitor before entering operating system thread synchronizaton code. (Relevant to 1.4.2 and 5.0 only.) [1.4.2, multi-processor Windows platforms: true]
|
| -XX:+UseTLAB | Use thread-local object allocation (Introduced in 1.4.0, known as UseTLE prior to that.) [1.4.2 and earlier, x86 or with -client: false]
|
| -XX:+UseSplitVerifier | Use the new type checker with StackMapTable attributes. (Introduced in 5.0.)[5.0: false]
|
| -XX:+UseThreadPriorities | Use native thread priorities.
|
| -XX:+UseVMInterruptibleIO | Thread interrupt before or with EINTR for I/O operations results in OS_INTRPT. (Introduced in 6. Relevant to Solaris only.)
|