> Reference counting does not trace dead objects. > […] > and that part of its operation corresponds to the sweep activity in garbage collection, not to the t

> Reference counting does not trace dead objects. > […] > and that part of its operation corresponds to the sweep activity in garbage collection, not to the tracing of live objects. The sweep activity in garbage collection traces live objects. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_science)#Tracing https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garbage_collection_(computer_s...: “The overall strategy consists of determining which objects should be garbage collected by tracing which objects are reachable by a chain of references from certain root objects, and considering the rest as garbage and collecting them.”