What processes does the garbage collector perform when it is started in a Java virtual machine?

In the Java Virtual Machine, the Garbage Collector (GC) performs the following main processes during startup:

1. Reachability analysis of objects — GC analyzes which objects in memory are no longer reachable from root references (e.g., from the stack, static fields).
2. Memory freeing — objects that are unreachable are considered garbage, and their memory is freed.
3. Memory compaction (optional) — to reduce memory fragmentation, GC may move live objects closer together.
4. Updating references — when objects are moved, GC updates all references to them.

Thus, the garbage collector automatically manages memory, freeing developers from the need to manually delete objects and preventing memory leaks.