Copy collector with efficient abort-on-copy transition to mark collector

A computer program product to perform garbage collection on an object heap, the computer program product comprising a computer-usable storage medium having computer-usable program code embodied therein, the computer-usable program code comprising:

• computer-usable program code to perform a copy phase on an object heap by copying live objects from a source space to a destination space;
• computer-usable program code to generate an abort condition when copying an object from the source space to the destination space fails due to insufficient space;
• computer-usable program code to terminate, in response to the abort condition, tracing work and reference updating associated with the copy phase;
• computer-usable program code to initiate, in response to the abort condition, a mark phase that marks live objects in the source space;
• and
• computer-usable program code to resume, by the mark phase, the tracing work and reference updating terminated by the copy phase.

A system for performing garbage collection on an object heap, the system comprising:

• a copy collector to perform a copy phase on an object heap by copying live objects from a source space to a destination space;
• the copying collector further configured to generate an abort condition when copying an object from the source space to the destination space fails due to insufficient space;
• the copy collector further configured to terminate, in response to the abort condition, tracing work and reference updating associated with the copy phase;
• a mark collector to initiate, in response to the abort condition, a mark phase that marks live objects in the source space;
• and
• the mark collector further configured to resume the tracing work and reference updating terminated by the copy phase.