From: Shan-leung Maverick WOO <maverick@...>
Date: 2001-07-05T12:43:59+09:00
Subject: [ruby-talk:17271] Re: extension and GC

Yukihiro Matsumoto wrote:

>   (1) override instance method "initialize", instead of overriding
>       class method "new".

Wow! That works so well that I don't even need to call super in my
initialize (as the "new" of Hash will call "initialize"). Great.

>   (2) depends on when do you want to deallocate your memory, but
>       global finalizer rb_set_end_proc() may help.  See ext/curses.c

I think this doesn't quite work in my case because the user can potentially
create tons of such objects. To cast the question better, let me put up a
hypothetical scenario: 

- I am going to re-implement the dbm package by inheriting from Hash
(instead of the current way which is to mimic a hash).

- The current way in dbm to release any allocated memory is in fdbm_close.
(In reality, there is no memory allocated, but let's assume we did have
some.) 

- I don't want my user to have to call "close" this time. I want the
database to be closed when the object is GC'ed. And so, when the object is
GC'ed, I better free the memory I allocated in my C code. Otherwise, all
these memory are wasted while my program is running.

How can I achieve this effect without waiting all the way through Ruby exit,
which is what rb_set_end_proc buys me? 

Thanks!!!

-- 
All the best,
Maverick Woo