One MORE on GC

The garbage collector informs your object when it is about to be garbage collected.
If TRUE then HOW ???

Please reply.............
Manish

Yes, only if you set up a listener which is the <code>finalize</code> method.
Ajith

Just simple straight forward .... what will be the answer for the above assumming we don't have finilize method.....?
Should the answer be False ???
Aruna

If you don't have a finalize method, there is no way of knowing when the garbage is GC'd. The VM still informs the great-grand-father Object class from which your class is derived from. So the one word answer is TRUE.
Ajith

Thx Ajith,
Aruna

Thanks Ajith
Manish Singhal

Ajith,
with the finalize method execution coming to an end the jvm will know that the object is ready to be garbage collected is that the way the finalize works as a listner.
please nelighten me.
Regards,
shankar.

Shankar,
I don't think I understood your question correctly. However FYI here is the Java API documentation for the <code>Object.finalize()</code> method. Pay attention to text in blue color.

protected void finalize() throws Throwable
Called by the garbage collector on an object when garbage collection determines that there are no more references to the object. A subclass overrides the finalize method to dispose of system resources or to perform other cleanup.
The general contract of finalize is that it is invoked if and when the JavaTM virtual machine has determined that there is no longer any means by which this object can be accessed by any thread that has not yet died, except as a result of an action taken by the finalization of some other object or class which is ready to be finalized. The finalize method may take any action, including making this object available again to other threads; the usual purpose of finalize, however, is to perform cleanup actions before the object is irrevocably discarded. For example, the finalize method for an object that represents an input/output connection might perform explicit I/O transactions to break the connection before the object is permanently discarded.
The finalize method of class Object performs no special action; it simply returns normally. Subclasses of Object may override this definition.
The Java programming language does not guarantee which thread will invoke the finalize method for any given object. It is guaranteed, however, that the thread that invokes finalize will not be holding any user-visible synchronization locks when finalize is invoked. If an uncaught exception is thrown by the finalize method, the exception is ignored and finalization of that object terminates.
After the finalize method has been invoked for an object, no further action is taken until the Java virtual machine has again determined that there is no longer any means by which this object can be accessed by any thread that has not yet died, including possible actions by other objects or classes which are ready to be finalized, at which point the object may be discarded.
The finalize method is never invoked more than once by a Java virtual machine for any given object.
Any exception thrown by the finalize method causes the finalization of this object to be halted, but is otherwise ignored.

Clearly, the JVM calls the finalize method and not vice-versa.
Hope that helps,
Ajith

Ajith,
Thanks for the wonderful explanation I think i have got my concepts more clear on the finalize method.
Regards,
Shankar.