Garbage collection and task deletion in distributed applicative processing systems
Paul Hudak, Robert Keller · 1982
The problem of automatic storage reclamation for distributed implementations of applicative languages is explored. Highly parallel distributed systems have several unique characteristics that complicate the reclamation process; in this setting, the deficiencies of existing storage reclamation schemes are thus noted. A real-time, effectively distributed, garbage collector of the mark-sweep variety, called the marking-tree collector, is shown to accomplish reclamation in parallel with the main computation, with no centralized data or control other than a logical rendezvous between phases of the collector. In addition, it is capable of finding and subsequently deleting active processes which are determined to be no longer relevant to the computation.