How to free memory ( ie garbage collect) at run time with Python 2.5.1(windows)

[Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch]

On Mon, 27 Aug 2007 07:18:26 -0700, rfv-370 wrote:

> have made the following small test:
> 
> Before starting my test my UsedPhysicalMemory(PF): 555Mb
> 
>>>>tf=range(0,10000000)    PF: 710Mb ( so 155Mb for my List)
>>>> tf=[0,1,2,3,4,5]             PF: 672Mb (Why? Why the remaining 117Mb is not freed?)
>>>> del tf                            PF: 672Mb (unused memory not freed)
> 
> So changing the list contents and/or deleting the list changes
> nothing...from a memory point of view.

>From the OS memory point of view to be precise.  Although here the integer
cache applies as Alex pointed out, in the general case memory might be
kept allocated by Python to be re-used later.  The Python allocator is
better suited for frequent allocation and deallocation of many small
objects than `malloc()` from the C standard library is.  And even a
`free()` in the C standard library doesn't guarantee that memory is given
back to the OS and reported as free memory again.

Ciao,
	Marc 'BlackJack' Rintsch