Android memory leak on static Resource member variable?

Question

Is it safe to have static reference to private static Resources mRes; in my Utils class, initalized as follows?

public static void init(Resources res) {
    mRes = res;
}
.. later in activity
Utils.init(getContext().getResources());

It seems to me it causes memory leak (log from Eclipse Memory Analyzer below)

mOuterContext android.app.ContextImpl 
'- mContext android.content.res.Resources
  |- mRes class com.github.mikephil.charting.utils.Utils
  |- mResources android.app.LoadedApk
  |- mResources android.app.ContextImpl
  |- this$0 android.content.res.Resources$Theme
  |  '- referent java.lang.ref.FinalizerReference
  |     '- next java.lang.ref.FinalizerReference
  |        '- next java.lang.ref.FinalizerReference

Are there safe ways to get reference to Resources class, that is not leaking whole activity?

Answer 1

Here is a solution, use a static reference of your Application Context, held by your Application

public class MyApplication extends Application
{
    private static Context context;

    public static Resources getResourcesStatic()
    {
         return context.getResources();
    }

    @Override
    public void onCreate()
    {
        super.onCreate();
        this.context = this.getApplicationContext();
    }
}

Now just call MyApplication.getResourcesStatic() to access your resources wherever you are.

Answer 2

It turned out that in this particluar case I do not need whole resources as static member variable - I need just android.util.DisplayMetrics.

So I changed code to have

public class Utils{
    private static DisplayMetrics mMetrics;

    public static void init(Resources res) {
        mMetrics=res.getDisplayMetrics();
  }

That works fine, memory leak is not to be found anymore. Nevertheless, orginal question (static Resources variable) is still valid.