[Python-Dev] Re: [Python-bugs-list] PRIVATE: interned->ma_table never free'd (PR#361)

[Greg Stein]

On Sat, Jun 17, 2000 at 10:53:20AM +0200, M.-A. Lemburg wrote:
>...
> I would suggest adding code to dealloc the interned dict
> iff it is empty after the sweeping action in PyString_Fini().
> I have a feeling that this is not the case though, since interned
> strings are used quite a lot in the core interpreter (e.g. in
> classobject.c) and these are usually not recovered.
> 
> Perhaps we ought to add some code which takes care of cleaning
> up all remaining garbage left over after the call to
> call_ll_exitfuncs() in Py_Finalize(), e.g. force free'ing
> of all interned strings and cached ints/floats and associated
> free lists or dicts.
> 
> We'd need new APIs in string|float|intobject.c to implement this.
> 
> Thoughts ? Patches ?

I would definitely like to see this, and suggested it to Guido about four
years ago :-)

During my threading work, I looked at all the globals, which includes the
pools and the one-off allocations in classobject.c and friends. I figured it
would be a Good Thing(tm) to write a general object pool API which could be
used by tuples, floats, frames, etc. Having the single implementation of a
pool would mean that we could add thread locks in a single place.

Similarly, for cleanup reasons, I also suggested a general API for
allocating the "constants" and torching them at shutdown.

As we all know, though... suggestions don't mean crap. Code counts. :-)

That said, I'll look into some of this with the free-threading work. That is
all post-1.6, though. It would be great if somebody could do it before then.

Cheers,
-g

-- 
Greg Stein, http://www.lyra.org/