[Python-Dev] Have a big machine and spare time? Here's a possible Python bug. (original) (raw)

Steve Dower steve.dower at python.org
Thu May 23 11:15:41 EDT 2019

On 23May2019 0542, Inada Naoki wrote:

1. perf shows 95% of CPU time is eaten by PyObjectFree, not kernel space. 2. This loop is cleary hot: https://github.com/python/cpython/blob/51aa35e9e17eef60d04add9619fe2a7eb938358c/Objects/obmalloc.c#L1816-L1819

I can attach the process by gdb and I confirmed many arenas have same nfreepools.

It's relatively easy to test replacing our custom allocators with the system ones, yes? Can we try those to see whether they have the same characteristic?

Given the relative amount of investment over the last 19 years 1, I wouldn't be surprised if most system ones are at least as good for our needs now. Certainly Windows HeapAlloc has had serious improvements in that time to help with fragmentation and small allocations.

Cheers, Steve

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