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Asked: 2026-05-10T19:59:06+00:00

Is there a way to create register a handler that will be called exactly

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Is there a way to create register a handler that will be called exactly at the time when the last reference to a certain object is released?

An example would be an object that is backed by a physical data file and once the object become unreferenced, the file should be closed and than renamed. It would be nice if this was possible without having to explicitly call a ‘close’ method on that object.

All the notification mechanisms I am aware of from the Weak/Phantom reference area only state that notification will occur at some point in time but there is no gurantee as to when this will happen…

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  1. In short, no.

    The Java specification explicitly denies you the ability to know when the last reference is released. JVM implementations (and optimizations) depend on this. There is no hook.

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