SymbolTable and StringTable can make calls to GC_locker::is_active() outside a safepoint. This isn't safe because the GC_locker active state (lock count) is only updated at a safepoint and only remains valid as long as _needs_gc is true. However, outside a safepoint_needs_gc can change to false at any time, which makes it impossible to do a correct call to is_active() in that context. In this case these calls can just be removed since the input argument to basic_add() should never be on the heap and so there's no need to check the GC_locker state. This change also adjusts the assert() in is_active() to makes sure all calls to this function are always done under a safepoint.
Reviewed-by: brutisso, dcubed
After changes in 8010722 the ergonomics for calculating the size of the heap that supports zero based compressed oops changed. This lead to the VM actually using zero based compressed oops. Due to low default HeapBaseMinAddress, the OS mapping in the application image at the same address, and limitations of the malloc implementation on Solaris this resulted in very little C heap available for the VM. So the VM immediately gives a native OOME when the machine has lots of physical memory (>=32G). The solution is to increase the HeapBaseMinAddress so that the VM has enough C heap.
Reviewed-by: kvn, brutisso
