Does the JVM give back free memory to the OS when no longer needed?

Question

I have an application that temporarily needs some certain amount of memory/heap for some processes. Given a reasonable value of maximum heap size to the JVM as an option, th

Answer 1

Not necessarily. It depends on JVM you use. I know of one case, with IBM's JVM. We also had an issue with a program not freeing memory, even when it's not needed. Some info can be found on IBM's site.