JVM Debugger Memory View for IntelliJ IDEA

Posted on August 19, 2016 by Andrey Cheptsov

Every day we try to find new ways to improve developer experience with IntelliJ IDEA. It may be a bugfix, a performance improvement, or a new feature (usually in this order). Today we’d like to introduce a new plugin called JVM Debugger Memory View.

The plugin extends the built-in debugger with capabilities to explore objects in the JVM heap during a debug session. The Memory View shows you the total number of objects in the heap grouped by their class name.

To open the tool window, use the main menu: View → Tool Windows → Memory View.

When you’re stepping over the code, the Diff column shows how the number of objects changes between debugger stops. This way you can easily see how the code you’re stepping over affects the heap.

A double click on a class name, opens a dialog with instances of this class.

The dialog lets you filter instances by an evaluated expression. All debugger operations such asInspect, Mark Object, Evaluate Expression, Add to Watches, etc can be applied to instances in this dialog.

To install the plugin, open Settings → Plugins, click Install JetBrains plugin and search for “JVM Debugger Memory View”.

UPDATE: The plugin is now available for IntelliJ IDEA 2016.1 and Android studio 2.2.

Found a bug or miss a feature? Your feedback is very welcome in the issue tracker.

Develop with Pleasure!