Version: GNU bash, version 4.2.8(1)-release (x86_64-pc-linux-gnu) on Ubuntu
10.04
If I set an associative array, as in:
MYARRAY["something"]="Goobledygook"
Then I set that same variable name again later (and so on in a loop). The
earlier variables are never released from memory, before I re-set a given
item I MUST call unset on the item first, possibly storing the value to a
temp variable if it's needed (such as is the case with a counter, for
example).
The scripts below demonstrate a case which exposes this memory leak, and one
that works around it with a store/unset/set operation, respectively.
--------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
#Memory leak exposed in associative array
while true; do
declare -A DB
i=0
while (( i < 200000 )); do
DB["static"]="Any old gobbledygook"
if (( $i == 100000 )); then echo 100k; fi
i=$(($i+1))
done
echo "Clearing DB";
unset DB
done
--------------------------------------
#!/bin/bash
#Memory leak worked around with store/unset/set operation
while true; do
declare -A DB
DB["static"]="Any old gobbledygook"
i=0
while (( i < 200000 )); do
TEMP=${DB["static"]}
unset DB["static"]
DB["static"]=$TEMP
if (( $i == 100000 )); then echo 100k, DB val is:
${DB["static"]}; fi
i=$(($i+1))
done
echo "Clearing DB";
unset DB
done
