`ContextCleaner` — Spark Application Garbage Collector

ContextCleaner is a Spark service that is responsible for application-wide cleanup of shuffles, RDDs, broadcasts, accumulators and checkpointed RDDs that is aimed at reducing the memory requirements of long-running data-heavy Spark applications.

ContextCleaner runs on the driver. It is created and immediately started when SparkContext starts (and spark.cleaner.referenceTracking Spark property is enabled, which it is by default). It is stopped when SparkContext is stopped.

Table 1. ContextCleaner’s Internal Registries and Counters
Name	Description
`referenceBuffer`	Used when ???
`referenceQueue`	Used when ???
`listeners`	Used when ???

It uses a daemon Spark Context Cleaner thread that cleans RDD, shuffle, and broadcast states (using keepCleaning method).

ShuffleDependencies register themselves for cleanup.

Tip	Enable `INFO` or `DEBUG` logging level for `org.apache.spark.ContextCleaner` logger to see what happens in `ContextCleaner`. Add the following line to `conf/log4j.properties`: `log4j.logger.org.apache.spark.ContextCleaner=DEBUG` Refer to Logging.

`doCleanupRDD` Method

Caution

FIXME

`keepCleaning` Internal Method

keepCleaning(): Unit

keepCleaning runs indefinitely until ContextCleaner is stopped. It…FIXME

You should see the following DEBUG message in the logs:

DEBUG Got cleaning task [task]

Note	`keepCleaning` is exclusively used in Spark Context Cleaner Cleaning Thread that is started once when `ContextCleaner` is started.

Spark Context Cleaner Cleaning Thread — `cleaningThread` Attribute

Caution

FIXME

The name of the daemon thread is Spark Context Cleaner.

$ jstack -l [sparkPID] | grep "Spark Context Cleaner"
"Spark Context Cleaner" #80 daemon prio=5 os_prio=31 tid=0x00007fc304677800 nid=0xa103 in Object.wait() [0x0000000120371000]

Note	`cleaningThread` is started as a daemon thread when `ContextCleaner` starts.

`registerRDDCheckpointDataForCleanup` Method

Caution

FIXME

`registerBroadcastForCleanup` Method

Caution

FIXME

`registerRDDForCleanup` Method

Caution

FIXME

`registerAccumulatorForCleanup` Method

Caution

FIXME

`stop` Method

Caution

FIXME

Creating `ContextCleaner` Instance

ContextCleaner takes a SparkContext.

ContextCleaner initializes the internal registries and counters.

Starting `ContextCleaner` — `start` Method

start(): Unit

start starts cleaning thread and an action to request the JVM garbage collector (using System.gc()) every spark.cleaner.periodicGC.interval interval.

Note	The action to request the JVM GC is scheduled on `periodicGCService` executor service.

`periodicGCService` Single-Thread Executor Service

periodicGCService is an internal single-thread executor service with the name context-cleaner-periodic-gc to request the JVM garbage collector.

Note	Requests for JVM GC are scheduled every spark.cleaner.periodicGC.interval interval. The periodic runs are started when `ContextCleaner` starts and stopped when `ContextCleaner` stops.

Registering `ShuffleDependency` for Cleanup — `registerShuffleForCleanup` Method

registerShuffleForCleanup(shuffleDependency: ShuffleDependency[_, _, _]): Unit

registerShuffleForCleanup registers a ShuffleDependency for cleanup.

Internally, registerShuffleForCleanup simply executes registerForCleanup for the input ShuffleDependency.

Note	`registerShuffleForCleanup` is exclusively used when `ShuffleDependency` is created.

Registering Object Reference For Cleanup — `registerForCleanup` Internal Method

registerForCleanup(objectForCleanup: AnyRef, task: CleanupTask): Unit

Internally, registerForCleanup adds the input objectForCleanup to referenceBuffer internal queue.

Note	Despite the widest-possible `AnyRef` type of the input `objectForCleanup`, the type is really `CleanupTaskWeakReference` which is a custom Java’s java.lang.ref.WeakReference.

Removing Shuffle Blocks From `MapOutputTrackerMaster` and `BlockManagerMaster` — `doCleanupShuffle` Method

doCleanupShuffle(shuffleId: Int, blocking: Boolean): Unit

doCleanupShuffle performs a shuffle cleanup which is to remove the shuffle from the current MapOutputTrackerMaster and BlockManagerMaster. doCleanupShuffle also notifies CleanerListeners.

Internally, when executed, you should see the following DEBUG message in the logs:

DEBUG Cleaning shuffle [id]

doCleanupShuffle unregisters the input shuffleId from MapOutputTrackerMaster.

Note	`doCleanupShuffle` uses `SparkEnv` to access the current `MapOutputTracker`.

doCleanupShuffle removes the shuffle blocks of the input shuffleId from BlockManagerMaster.

Note	`doCleanupShuffle` uses `SparkEnv` to access the current `BlockManagerMaster`.

doCleanupShuffle informs all registered CleanerListener listeners (from listeners internal queue) that the input shuffleId was cleaned.

In the end, you should see the following DEBUG message in the logs:

DEBUG Cleaned shuffle [id]

In case of any exception, you should see the following ERROR message in the logs and the exception itself.

ERROR Error cleaning shuffle [id]

Note	`doCleanupShuffle` is executed when `ContextCleaner` cleans a shuffle reference and (interestingly) while fitting a `ALSModel` (in Spark MLlib).

Settings

Table 2. Spark Properties
Spark Property	Default Value	Description
`spark.cleaner.periodicGC.interval`	`30min`	Controls how often to trigger a garbage collection.
`spark.cleaner.referenceTracking`	`true`	Controls whether a `ContextCleaner` should be created when a `SparkContext` initializes.
`spark.cleaner.referenceTracking.blocking`	`true`	Controls whether the cleaning thread should block on cleanup tasks (other than shuffle, which is controlled by spark.cleaner.referenceTracking.blocking.shuffle Spark property). It is `true` as a workaround to SPARK-3015 Removing broadcast in quick successions causes Akka timeout.
`spark.cleaner.referenceTracking.blocking.shuffle`	`false`	Controls whether the cleaning thread should block on shuffle cleanup tasks. It is `false` as a workaround to SPARK-3139 Akka timeouts from ContextCleaner when cleaning shuffles.
`spark.cleaner.referenceTracking.cleanCheckpoints`	`false`	Controls whether to clean checkpoint files if the reference is out of scope.

ContextCleaner — Spark Application Garbage Collector