[Python-Dev] test_minidom non-failure failure? (take 2)

Neil Schemenauer nas@arctrix.com
Thu, 12 Oct 2000 06:28:04 -0700


On Thu, Oct 12, 2000 at 04:21:39PM -0500, Guido van Rossum wrote:
> Any form of evilness that can be detected without *too* much effort is
> worth it...  I have no idea what kind of evil we're looking for here
> or how to detect is, so I can't answer yes or no.

That would be reference cycles with finalizers (ie. instances
with __del__ methods).  The current garbage collector does not
free such structures but instead appends them to gc.garbage.
Sorry for not being clear.

In any case, regrtest should probably print a more clueful
message when objects are found in gc.garbage.  That would go a
long way in clearing up the confusion.  I'll see about a patch.

  Neil