From: MenTaLguY <mental@...>
Date: 2007-10-12T03:58:35+09:00
Subject: Re: Should *most* memory be release back to the system?

On Fri, 12 Oct 2007 03:25:52 +0900, Sylvain Joyeux <sylvain.joyeux@polytechnique.org> wrote:
>> Ruby does make a reasonable effort to return unused blocks ("heaps" in
>> the parlance of gc.c) to the OS[3], when it is possible to do so.  But
>> it is not always possible to do so.

> Ruby does not free heaps. It it supposed to do so, but the way it
> allocates very big heaps forbids him to do that in practice.

That's true; Ruby tends to use relatively large heap sizes, which
makes it unlikely for there to be any unused heaps which can be freed.

Using per-heap freelists and preferring newer heaps for allocation
would help, although it would mean additional overhead to determine
which heap a freed object belonged to.

-mental