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package java.lang.ref;


/**
 * Soft reference objects, which are cleared at the discretion of the garbage
 * collector in response to memory demand.  Soft references are most often used
 * to implement memory-sensitive caches.
 *
 * 

Suppose that the garbage collector determines at a certain point in time * that an object is softly * reachable. At that time it may choose to clear atomically all soft * references to that object and all soft references to any other * softly-reachable objects from which that object is reachable through a chain * of strong references. At the same time or at some later time it will * enqueue those newly-cleared soft references that are registered with * reference queues. * *

All soft references to softly-reachable objects are guaranteed to have * been cleared before the virtual machine throws an * OutOfMemoryError. Otherwise no constraints are placed upon the * time at which a soft reference will be cleared or the order in which a set * of such references to different objects will be cleared. Virtual machine * implementations are, however, encouraged to bias against clearing * recently-created or recently-used soft references. * *

Direct instances of this class may be used to implement simple caches; * this class or derived subclasses may also be used in larger data structures * to implement more sophisticated caches. As long as the referent of a soft * reference is strongly reachable, that is, is actually in use, the soft * reference will not be cleared. Thus a sophisticated cache can, for example, * prevent its most recently used entries from being discarded by keeping * strong referents to those entries, leaving the remaining entries to be * discarded at the discretion of the garbage collector. * * @author Mark Reinhold * @since 1.2 */ public class SoftReference extends Reference { /** * Timestamp clock, updated by the garbage collector */ static private long clock; /** * Timestamp updated by each invocation of the get method. The VM may use * this field when selecting soft references to be cleared, but it is not * required to do so. */ private long timestamp; /** * Creates a new soft reference that refers to the given object. The new * reference is not registered with any queue. * * @param referent object the new soft reference will refer to */ public SoftReference(T referent) { super(referent); this.timestamp = clock; } /** * Creates a new soft reference that refers to the given object and is * registered with the given queue. * * @param referent object the new soft reference will refer to * @param q the queue with which the reference is to be registered, * or null if registration is not required * */ public SoftReference(T referent, ReferenceQueue q) { super(referent, q); this.timestamp = clock; } /** * Returns this reference object's referent. If this reference object has * been cleared, either by the program or by the garbage collector, then * this method returns null. * * @return The object to which this reference refers, or * null if this reference object has been cleared */ public T get() { T o = super.get(); if (o != null && this.timestamp != clock) this.timestamp = clock; return o; } }





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