How to analyze PermGen contents?

Question

I want to get a dump of the PermGen to see why it is filling. Is there a way to analyze this? I already know about the common suspects like log4j, tomcat webapp reloading et

Answer 1

If you're looking to get a list of all classes loaded you can use jconsole. Click on the classes tab then click "Verbose Output". That will print each class that is loaded to stdout. I found this very useful tracking down a JAXB proxy class issue.

You may have to launch your application with the -Dcom.sun.management.jmxremote command line option in order for jconsole to attach to it.