From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2012-05-28T21:28:29+09:00
Subject: Re: Garbage Collector(GC) and nil

On Sun, May 27, 2012 at 4:10 PM, Damián M. González
<lists@ruby-forum.com> wrote:
> Hello fellows, I'm wondering if I should set to nil any variables that I
> will not use anymore for the sake of save memory system, I didn't see
> this way of work but I'm curious of what you can say.
>  I'm not sure about how GC works, tell me if I'm wrong: the GC will
> erase in memory those "labels" that are pointing to nil, so, if I set to
> nil any variables, that space in memory will be free again.
>  I'll aprreciate any explanation.

Depends on whether we are talking instance variables or local
variables.  Local variables are automatically out of scope once the
method terminates (either via return or throw).  As Peter said, if
that was the last reference to an object it is read for collection.
When that happens is a different story.

If you have member variables which are not needed any more then you
can set them to nil.  Usually though, most member variables are still
needed to represent state of an object and if the object itself is no
longer reachable then those references are not life any more - so
explicit "clearing" (via setting to nil) is not needed most of the
time.

Kind regards

robert


-- 
remember.guy do |as, often| as.you_can - without end
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