The CLOSER: Automating resource management in Java

Abstract

While automatic garbage collection has relieved programmers from manual memory management in Java-like languages, managing resources remains a considerable burden and a source of performance problems. In this paper, we present a novel technique for automatic resource management based on static approximation of resource lifetimes. Our source-to-source transformation tool, CLOSER, automatically transforms program code to guarantee that resources are properly disposed and handles arbitrary resource usage patterns. CLOSER generates code for directly disposing any resource whose lifetime can be statically determined; when this is not possible, CLOSER inserts conditional disposal code based on interest-reference counts that identify when the resource can be safely disposed. The programmer is only required to identify which types should be treated as resources, and what method to invoke to dispose each such resource. We have successfully applied CLOSER on a moderate-sized graphics application that requires complex reasoning for resource management. Copyright © 2008 ACM.