Improve progress monitoring of "Computing retained sizes"
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- Dominant language
- Java
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Description
Is your feature request related to a problem? Please describe.
I'm working with large heap dumps (20GB). Clicking on "Compute Retained Sizes" or "Find biggest objects by retained size" takes a long time (12+ hours on my computer). The window Help > About > Logfile does not show an error. The only visual cue that it is working is at the bottom right of the visualvm window it shows the "Computing retained sizes [progress bar]". The progress bar icon moves back and forth, but there is no indication that anything is happening.
Describe the solution you'd like
It would be great if this process, which takes a long time, could provide some better status information:
Actual percent complete
Number of objects processed
etc.
I don't know how the "compute retained sizes" actually works, but retrieving some status info to be able to verify that it is actually working would be beneficial.
Describe alternatives you've considered
Looked in Help > About > Logfile
Additional context

Screenshot of the "progress indicator" at the bottom-right of the visualvm window.
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
Start from the “Compute Retained Sizes” and “Find biggest objects by retained size” entry points, then trace how the bottom-right “Computing retained sizes” progress indicator receives updates. Check whether the Help > About > Logfile path exposes relevant status. Done means the long-running operation reports useful progress such as percent complete or objects processed.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- java
- Domain
- desktop, observability
- Issue type
- Feature
- Difficulty
- 4/5
- Estimated time
- 3-5 days
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Mostly clear
- Newbie friendliness
- 35/100