Mark and Sweep Garbage Collector

Description

This project is a simple implementation of a Mark and Sweep Garbage Collector in C. It demonstrates how memory management and automatic garbage collection can be handled in a custom virtual machine environment. The collector supports basic object types such as integers, floats, strings, arrays, and vector3 objects, and provides a clear step-by-step output of the garbage collection process.

Why?

Manual memory management in C is error-prone and can lead to memory leaks or dangling pointers. This project aims to:

• Demonstrate the principles of garbage collection using the mark-and-sweep algorithm.
• Provide a learning resource.
• Solve the problem of automatic memory reallocation in environments where objects are dynamically created and referenced.

Reference Counting

As a foundation, this project also includes a Reference Counting (RefCount) algorithm. RefCount is a very basic form of garbage collection. It helps illustrate the concept of tracking object references, but it is not enough for real-world use (e.g., it cannot handle cyclic references). The Mark and Sweep implementation builds upon this base to provide a more practical and complete solution.

Quick Start

Prerequisites

• CMake installed and added to your system PATH.
• MinGW (or another C compiler) installed and added to your system PATH.

Build Instructions

1. Clone the repository and navigate to the project directory:

   git clone <your-repo-url>
   cd GarbageCollector/Mark_and_Sweep

2. Create and enter the build directory:

   mkdir build
   cd build

3. Generate build files and compile:

   cmake -G "MinGW Makefiles" ..
   cmake --build .

4. Run the executable:

   GarbageCollector.exe

Usage

• The main entry point is testCases.c, which runs several test cases to demonstrate garbage collection:

  • Creating and collecting integer, array, vector3, and string objects.
  • Removing references and triggering garbage collection.
  • Step-by-step output of the mark, trace, and sweep phases.

• Example output:

  === [GC] Starting garbage collection ===
  [GC] Mark phase...
  [GC][Mark] Marking root references in all frames...
  ...
  [GC] Trace phase...
  ...
  [GC] Sweep phase...
  ...
  === [GC] Garbage collection complete ===
  

• You can modify testCases.c to add your own objects and test scenarios.

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