DJTB <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> I'm not a Python memory specialist, but does del immediately release/free
> the memory to the OS? I thought it was impossible to let Python immediately
> release memory.
Unknown. Python relies on the C alloc/free routines for handling
memory. del may immediately free() the memory (I don't know), but that
doesn't mean it gets released to the OS. None of the implementations
of alloc/free I'm aware of ever give the memory back to the OS. They
store it in a data structure for internal reuse.
If you hang out in Unix OS support groups (I use to hang out on
[EMAIL PROTECTED]), you get used to seeing questions about "My
program freed up the memory, but the size didn't shrink. Why
not?". The above is the standard answer.
<mike
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Mike Meyer <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.mired.org/home/mwm/
Independent WWW/Perforce/FreeBSD/Unix consultant, email for more information.
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