My JVM reading list
Books and resources that helped me understand what actually happens when Java code runs.
People regularly ask where to start if they want to go deeper than the Java language. These are the resources I keep coming back to.
Books
- Java Concurrency in Practice, Brian Goetz et al. Still the best explanation of the Java Memory Model and of safe publication. Some APIs have moved on; the reasoning hasn’t.
- Optimizing Java, Benjamin J. Evans, James Gough and Chris Newland. JIT compilation, GC and performance methodology, with a healthy suspicion of micro-benchmarks.
- Java Performance, Scott Oaks. A practical tour of tuning the JVM and the tools to measure it.
Online
- The JVM Specification. Dry, but chapters 2, 4 and 6 (structure, class file format, instruction set) are essential if you touch bytecode.
- JVM Anatomy Quarks by Aleksey Shipilëv. Short, precise deep-dives into individual JVM behaviours.
- OpenJDK JEPs. The best way to understand why a feature looks the way it does.
- ASM user guide. The starting point for bytecode manipulation (see my article on ASM).
Tools worth learning
javap -c -vto read bytecode,- JDK Flight Recorder and JDK Mission Control,
- async-profiler for flame graphs,
- JMH for benchmarks you can trust.
Got a favourite I missed? Open a discussion. The button is right below.
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