Why does -Xrs reduce performance

Question

From IBM:

-Xrs

Disables signal handling in the JVM.

-Xrs

Setting -Xrs prevents the J

Answer 1

In addition to safepoints mentioned by @chrylis segfault handlers are also used for other clever optimization tricks such as implicit null pointer checking (at least they're on hotspot). If profiles show that a null-checking code path is rarely triggered it's optimized out and the unlikely case is then covered by the signal handler instead.

Such an optimization cannot be performed without installing a custom signal handler.