On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 10:02 AM, William Stein <wst...@gmail.com> wrote: > On Wed, Feb 29, 2012 at 9:55 AM, Volker Braun <vbraun.n...@gmail.com> wrote: >> Python uses a garbage collector to reclaim memory. Objects don't die just >> because they fall out of scope, they will be around until the next GC cycle. > > Minor note: At least when using Cython, sometimes objects will be > freed when they fall out of scope if they are not part of a circular > reference cycle. It is useful to look at > > python-2.7.2.p1/src/Include/object.h > > to see what Py_DECREF actually does.
In general (not just Cython) a Python object is deallocated as soon as it's no longer referenced (via the Py_DECREF macro), which is often as soon as they fall out of scope. The garbage collector is used to reclaim cyclically-referenced objects. Note also that ipython (used at the Sage prompt) also keeps a lot of references to old results around, making it difficult to do such analysis at the command line. - Robert -- To post to this group, send an email to sage-devel@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to sage-devel+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/sage-devel URL: http://www.sagemath.org
