Understanding Node.js Garbage Collection
summary
Explains that Node.js uses V8 GC and shows concrete behavior: V8 runs a generational GC with a scavenger (minor GC) copying collector for short-lived objects and a mark-sweep-compact major GC for old objects, uses write barriers for concurrent marking, and runs mostly concurrently but sometimes stops the world. Live demo allocates 1,000,000 objects: when references are dropped memory peaks ~7.5MB then settles ~12MB with no major GC; when references are retained it ends at ~99MB and a mark-compact step reduces 47MB to 37MB.
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chapters (12)
- 0:00Introduction to talk
- 0:42V8 garbage collector basics
- 3:51Memory leaks explained
- 6:25Stop the world GC impact
- 9:43Generational garbage collection
- 11:08V8 GC optimizations
- 13:16Scavenger minor GC
- 16:31Major GC Mark-Sweep-Compact
- 19:21GC execution flow
- 19:45Live demo setup
- 21:10Demo memory leak impact
- 22:34Key takeaways
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