Analyzing Python GC output - what is a "cell", and what information is available about it.

[Duncan Booth]

John Nagle <nagle at animats.com> wrote:

> I'm printing out each entry in "gc.garbage" after a garbage collection in
> DEBUG_LEAK mode, and I'm seeing many entries like
> 
><cell at 0x00F7C170: function object at 0x00FDD6B0>
> 
> That's the output of "repr".   Are "cell" objects created only from
> external C libraries, or can regular Python code generate them?  Is there
> any way to find out what the 'function object' is from within Python?
> 
Cell objects are created whenever you have a function that references a 
variable in an outer scope. e.g.

>>> def outer():
	x = 42
	def inner():
		return x
	return inner

>>> inner = outer()
>>> inner.func_closure[0]
<cell at 0x00C5D450: int object at 0x009657AC>
>>> inner.func_closure[0].cell_contents
42


So in your case, cell.cell_contents.func_name might help.