[Python-Dev] del is not called after creating a new reference (original) (raw)
Antoine Pitrou solipsis at pitrou.net
Mon Mar 20 16:23:59 EDT 2017
- Previous message (by thread): [Python-Dev] __del__ is not called after creating a new reference
- Next message (by thread): [Python-Dev] __del__ is not called after creating a new reference
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]
Hello Oleg,
On Mon, 20 Mar 2017 18:28:29 +0100 Oleg Nesterov <oleg at redhat.com> wrote:
I started to learn python a few days ago and I am trying to understand what del() actually does. https://docs.python.org/3/reference/datamodel.html says:
object.del(self) ... Note that it is possible (though not recommended!) for the del() method to postpone destruction of the instance by creating a new reference to it. It may then be called at a later time when this new reference is deleted.
This sentence is not technically wrong, but it can easily be misleading. It says "it may then be called at a later time" and probably it should say "it may or may not be called at a later time, depending on the Python implementation you are using".
Indeed CPython, the reference implementation, only calls del once and doesn't call it again on resurrected objects. It is an implementation detail, though, and other implementations are free to behave otherwise, as garbage collectors are delicate beasts, difficult to tame.
Regards
Antoine.
- Previous message (by thread): [Python-Dev] __del__ is not called after creating a new reference
- Next message (by thread): [Python-Dev] __del__ is not called after creating a new reference
- Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]