US Patent 8060543 Tracking software object use

Tracking resource use includes determining when the resource is allocated, determining when the resource is first used, determining when the resource is last used, and determining when the resource is deallocated. The resource may be a software object. Deallocating the resource may be performed automatically by a run time system when there are no remaining references to the object in run time code or variables. Deallocating the resource may include at least one of: setting a flag for the resource and adding an identifier for the resource to a list of resources to be deallocated. Time measurements may correspond to a count of garbage collection cycles. Tracking resource use may also include determining additional resource usage metrics.