debugging - Side Effects of running the JVM in debug mode

Question

I'd like to realease a Java application in debug mode to allow for easier debugging when random or hard to reproduce problems occur on the customer side.

However, I want to get a heads up on potential side effects of doing this? From the Java HotSpot Documentation it seems that there should be no performance penalty.

From the link

Full Speed Debugging

The Java HotSpot VM now uses full-speed debugging. In previous version of the VM, when debugging was enabled, the program executed using only the interpreter. Now, the full performance advantage of HotSpot technology is available to programs, even with compiled code. The improved performance allows long-running programs to be more easily debugged. It also allows testing to proceed at full speed. Once there is an exception, the debugger launches with full visibility to code sources.

Is this accurate or are there hidden caveats, what about memory footprint and are there any other hidden gotchas while using debug mode.

PS: I found this article from AMD which confirmed my initial suspiciion that the original article from oricale doesn't show the full story.

Answer 1

I can't speak for HotSpot, and won't officially for IBM, but I will say there are certainly legal kinds of optimization that aren't possible to undo fully should a decompilation be required in the middle of them, and thus aren't enabled when debug is being asked for in the production JVMs you are likely to use.

Imagine a situation where the optimizer discovers a part of the program is provably not required and by the various language rules (including JSR 133) is legal to remove, the JVM will want to get rid of it. The one wrinkle is debug: removing the code will look odd to the human stepping through it (variables not updating, possibly not stopping on lines when stepping) so the choice is to disable said optimizations in those cases. The same might also be true for opts like stack allocated objects, etc.. so while the JVM says it's "full speed" it's actually closer to "nearly full speed, with some of the funkier opts that can't quite be undone removed".