[IPython-dev] memory leak?

[Jörgen Stenarson]

Ville Vainio skrev:
> On 4/8/06, Hans Meine <hans_meine at gmx.net> wrote:
> 
>> Sth. like the following would be great:
>>
>> %clearout - clear whole cache
>> %clearout 112 - clear one line
>> %clearout :100 140:150 113 - clear multiple (sub)ranges
> 
> Now
> 
> %clear in
> %clear out
> 
> works in SVN. At this point I didn't see it necessary to support
> specifically targeted clears, typically users will probably store
> valueable (non-throwaway) output cache data in variables anyway.
> 
> --
> Ville Vainio - vivainio.googlepages.com
> vainio.blogspot.com - g[mail | talk]='vivainio'
> 
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Ville,

I think there is one more thing that needs clearing and that is the 
entries list in the outputcache object. In my attached patch I have 
removed it completely because I could not see that it was used for 
anything use for it. I have also attached a patch for another option to 
the clear command:
%clear array   which will delete all arrays from the user_ns namespace 
if ipython was started in -pylab mode. Arrays are determined by 
pylab.arraytype.

There is still some strangeness in the garbage collection process 
though. If I run
In[1] %run some_script.py
In[2] a   #array variable in script
Out[2] array(...)
In[3] %run some_script.py
In[4] a   #array variable in script
Out[4] array(...)
In[5] %run some_script.py
In[5] a   #array variable in script
Out[5] array(...)
In[6] %run some_script.py
In[7]%clear out

I get back some memory. If I then run gc.collect() a few times at the 
prompt I will get back some more for each call to gc.collect() this will 
stabilize after a few calls. I'm not sure what the reason is but I 
thought I should mention it.

/Jörgen
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