Is a Static Reference to an Object Garbage Collected?

[dancer]

If I declare a static reference to an object, will that reference remain in memory or will it eventually get garbage collected? I have a PropertyManager that has a static reference to a Properties object. This reference is set in the initialization process of the servlet after loading the Properties object from the property file. The PropertyManager is not a Singleton.

The code looks like this:

Class PropertyManager () {
private static Properties props = null;
}

public static void setProps(Properties props) {
PropertyManager.props = props;
}

In servlet:
FileInputStream fileConfig = new FileInputStream(servlet.getServletContext().getRea lPath(configFile));
Properties props = new Properties();
props.load(fileConfig);
PropertyManager.setProps(props);

When I try to reference the Properties object from other classes, will it still be there, or will it get garbage collected at some point? Do I have to declare this as a Singleton in order to keep it in the heap?

Any help would be appreciated!

[jeffro]

It depends on the context where you are keeping a reference to PropertyManager. If you keep it in session, as long as the users session is valid it will be there. Other-wise if you create it then move on with out setting it to a context it is a prime candidate for GC.