Execution

We must all hang together, or assuredly we shall all hang separately.
—Benjamin Franklin (July 4, 1776)

This chapter specifies activities that occur during execution of a Java program. It is organized around the life cycle of a Java Virtual Machine and of the classes, interfaces, and objects that form a Java program.

A Java Virtual Machine starts up by loading a specified class and then invoking the method main in this specified class. Section §12.1 outlines the loading, linking, and initialization steps involved in executing main, as an introduction to the concepts in this chapter. Further sections specify the details of loading (§12.2), linking (§12.3), and initialization (§12.4).

The chapter continues with a specification of the procedures for creation of new class instances (§12.5); finalization of class instances (§12.6); and finalization of classes (§12.7). It concludes by describing the unloading of classes (§12.8) and the procedure followed when a virtual machine exits (§12.9).