Disable node.js garbage collection for a while

Question

Is there any way to explicitly disable GC runs (at least most time-consuming ones, like GC interrupts in old space) during the specified period of time, while executing some code sensitive to delays? Something like this:

disableGc();
runCodeWithoutDelays();
enableGc();

Probably using some node options, or native modules? Or can I write my own module, is there an API in V8 for that?

Not really. This will trigger non-incremental major GC runs (mark-sweep-compact) which are pretty heavy and introduce long delays in comparison to fast incremental runs. Rather than running GC myself, I'd like to block GC for some time and release it again to normal operation. — artch
– artch, Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 14:17
I would recommend raising this question as a bug in Node.js repo and v8 mailing list. — thefourtheye
– thefourtheye, Commented Oct 29, 2015 at 17:26

Joan Miquel · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-17 15:09:24Z

5

+100

As far as I know you can't manually stop v8's garbage collector, the only thing you can do is start the gc process manually running global.gc() but not stopping v8's process.

answered Feb 17, 2017 at 15:09

Joan Miquel

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rdlopes · Accepted Answer · 2017-02-19 19:29:36Z

4

Another person had the same question and published an issue on GitHub here: https://github.com/nodejs/help/issues/462

Answer is you can't disable the GC in Node, but you can at least tweak the memory options to use the max space available and delay GC, by using --max_old_space_size, --max-semi-space-size.

An example is provided there in context.

answered Feb 19, 2017 at 19:29

rdlopes

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