[SciPy-user] ipython memory leak

Robert Kern robert.kern at gmail.com
Thu Apr 10 18:14:09 EDT 2008


On Thu, Apr 10, 2008 at 5:06 PM, Gael Varoquaux
<gael.varoquaux at normalesup.org> wrote:

>  Sure it can: references that do not get destroyed.
>
>  Actually iptyhon does leak memory by default: the result of each command
>  you enter are stored in the _%i variable, where %i is the number of the
>  prompt.

That's not the usual definition of a memory leak. A program leaks
memory when it has allocated memory, but it has lost track of it and
cannot reach it anymore. Memory leaks are, by definition, bugs. If
it's a feature, it's not a memory leak.

  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Memory_leak

-- 
Robert Kern

"I have come to believe that the whole world is an enigma, a harmless
enigma that is made terrible by our own mad attempt to interpret it as
though it had an underlying truth."
 -- Umberto Eco



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