20.1

java.lang.Object

THE PACKAGE JAVA.LANG

The

finalize

 method of class

Object

 performs no special action; it simply

returns normally. Subclasses of

Object

 may override this definition.

Java 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 excep 

tion 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.

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