pylab/matplotlib large plot memory management - bug? or tuning parameter needed?

[Johan Grönqvist]

bdb112 skrev:
> Summary:
> 
> It is not straightforward to avoid memory leaks/consumption in pylab.
> If we define
> x = arange(1e6)     # adjust size to make the increment visible, yet
> fast enough to plot
> # then repetition of
> plot(x,hold=0)   # consumes increasing memory according to ubuntu
> system monitor
> [...] 

I do not know what closing the window does, but in my programs, running 
on debian and opensuse, I found that explicitly calling close() solved 
my memory leaks with matplotlib.

> 3/ Are there python/matplotlib memory management tuning parameters I
> can tweak?

You could try to import gc, and then call gc.collect() after each call 
to close().

docs at: http://docs.python.org/library/gc.html

Hope it helps

/ johan