From: Masao Mutoh <mutoh@...>
Date: 2005-01-19T01:52:40+09:00
Subject: Re: [ruby-gtk2] Garbage collection and memory use

Hi,

On Tue, 18 Jan 2005 18:01:10 +0900
David Espada <davinciSINSPAM@escomposlinux.org> wrote:

>  Hi all.
> 
>  Look at next script:

>  When you push button, it triggers a loop that creates and destroy a
>  Gtk2 window in each iteration. For each 1000 iters, I call GC.start in
>  order to run Garbage Collection.
> 
>  In theory, there is no single variable that persist from one iter to
>  next, and garbage collection should reget memory for more use, without
>  collapsing physical memory and swap space.
> 
>  But that is what happens actually, and I don't know the reason.

>  What is problem with Garbage Collection? Why it doesn't free memory
>  althought I invoque it explicitly? Any clue or solution that doesn't
>  force me to change all code in order to reuse windows instead of
>  create them when I need?


Try the code below:
(gcc -o test `pkg-config gtk+-2.0 --libs --cflags` test.c)
---
#include <gtk/gtk.h>

int main(int argc, char** argv){  
  GtkWidget* window;
  gtk_init(&argc, &argv);

  while(TRUE){
    window = gtk_window_new(GTK_WINDOW_TOPLEVEL);
    gtk_widget_show_all(window);
    gtk_object_destroy(GTK_OBJECT(window));
  }
  gtk_main();
  return 0;
}
---

You can notice it does not concern Ruby GC.
I'm not sure but gtk_widget_show_all() causes this problem.

>  I am in the very edge, but it seems that Ruby Garbage Collection
>  doesn't work properly with Gtk2 widgets, because memory is not freed.

Any solutions?

P.S.
I don't think it's not good idea to post these discussions here.
If you want to discuss more, come ruby-gnome2 ML again.