Virtual machine options stanza

The [VM Options] stanza in the .ini file allows you to control certain features of the virtual machine. Many of the options available in the [VM Options] stanza can also be set in the command line used to start VA Smalltalk (see Command line arguments). The value set by the command line option will override the corresponding value set in the .ini file.

The available VM options are:

allocationIncrement

Sets the increment for allocating memory segments from the operating system to be nnnn bytes. When the executable is out of memory, a new segment of nnnn bytes is allocated from the operating system. The default allocation size is 2,097,152 (2048K). The corresponding command line option is –mi.

codeCacheSize

Sets the size of the dynamic translation code cache to be nnnn bytes. Use codeCacheSize=0 (or any value less than the minimum code cache size of 262,144) to disable dynamic translation for the session. The default code cache size is 2,000,000. This option applies only to the current session; the value is not saved in the image. The corresponding command line option is –mc.

fixedSpaceSize

Sets the size of fixed space to be nnnn bytes. The default is the size of the fixed space in the image when it was saved. In a newly packaged image, the default size is the actual byte size required by the image, plus a small amount. The corresponding command line option is –mf.

lowMinimum

Sets the minimum size of free memory after a global garbage collection to be nnnn bytes. The garbage collector uses this value to determine if it needs to allocate additional memory or return unused memory to the operating system. You use this option to specify a minimum amount of old space to remain free after a global garbage collection. A larger value will postpone a subsequent garbage collection. The default minimum size is 512,000 (500K). The corresponding command line option is –ml.

maximumMemoryLimit

Sets the maximum memory that can be allocated for object memory. The default is unlimited. If you set this option, the executable will stop requesting more memory from the operating system when memory allocation exceeds nnnn bytes. To disable dynamic memory allocation, you can specify maximumMemoryLimit=1. The corresponding command line option is –mx.

messageLevel

This option specifies that non-zero values cause verbose output.

newSpaceSize

Sets the size of new space to be nnnn bytes. The default is the size of the new space in the image when it was saved. In a newly packaged image, the default size is 162,144 (256K). The corresponding command line option is –mn.

oldSpaceSize

Sets the size of the largest old space to be nnnn bytes. The default size is the size of the old space in the image when it was packaged or when it was last saved. The corresponding command line option is –mo.

runtimeFlags

Sets various runtime optimizations as described in Minimizing memory footprint during IC loading. The runtimeFlags value is the sum of values for the desired runtime flags. The corresponding command line option is –r. The available flags are:

1

RUNTIME_NO_FILEPOINTERS

2

RUNTIME_NO_CMINFO

4

RUNTIME_NO_CATEGORIES

8

RUNTIME_NO_APPLICATIONS

16

RUNTIME_DUMP_IMAGE_ON_ERROR

Flags 1 through 8 apply to ICs only. Flag 16 applies to any runtime executable.