[Python-Dev] C API for gc.enable() and gc.disable() (original) (raw)

"Martin v. Löwis" martin at v.loewis.de
Thu Jun 26 00:39:37 CEST 2008

I took the statement, "Current GC only takes into account container objects, which, most significantly, ignores string objects (of which most applications create plenty)" to mean that strings were ignored for deciding when to do garbage collection. I mistakenly thought that was because they were assumed to be small. It sounds like they're ignored because they're automatically collected and so they SHOULD be ignored for object garbage collection.

More precisely, a string object can never participate in a cycle (it can be referenced from a cycle, but not be in the cycle, as it has no references to other objects). GC in Python is only about container objects (which potentially can be cyclic); non-container objects are released when the refcount says they are no longer referenced.

Whether or not allocation of definitely-non-cyclic objects should still trigger cyclic GC (in the hope that some objects hang on a garbage cycle) is a question that is open to debate; I'd prefer an analysis of existing applications before making decisions.

Regards, Martin

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