Os Memory Management Questions
The reference counting garbage collection algorithm is a memory management technique used in operating systems. It involves keeping track of the number of references to each allocated memory block. Each time a reference is added or removed, the reference count for that block is updated. When the reference count reaches zero, indicating that there are no more references to the block, it is considered garbage and can be safely deallocated. This algorithm ensures that memory is only freed when it is no longer needed, preventing memory leaks. However, it may not be able to handle cyclic references, where two or more objects reference each other, leading to memory leaks in such cases.