How does garbage collection works in Go?
Go uses a concurrent and generational garbage collector to automatically manage memory allocation and deallocation in Go programs.
Here's a brief overview of how the Go garbage collector works:
Mark phase: The garbage collector starts by recursively marking all objects that are reachable from the program's root set, which includes global variables, stack variables, and registers.
Sweep phase: Once the mark phase is complete, the garbage collector sweeps through the heap and identifies all objects that were not marked during the mark phase. These objects are considered garbage and their memory is returned to the heap.
Concurrent mark/sweep: The mark and sweep phases are run concurrently with the program's execution, in order to minimize the impact on application performance.
Generational collection: The Go garbage collector uses a generational collection strategy, where objects are divided into multiple generations based on their age. Newly allocated objects are placed in the youngest generation, and are collected more frequently than older objects.
Small object allocation: The Go garbage collector is optimized for allocating and freeing small objects quickly, which is common in Go programs.
Overall, the Go garbage collector provides a convenient way for developers to manage memory in their programs without having to manually allocate and free memory. The concurrent and generational design of the garbage collector helps to minimize the impact on application performance, making Go a good choice for high-performance applications.