[Python-Dev] When do sets shrink?

[Fredrik Lundh]

Martin v. Löwis wrote:

> Adal Chiriliuc wrote:
> > MSVC 7.1 and 8.0 malloc always uses the Windows heap functions
> > (HeapAlloc & friends) if running on Windows 2000 or newer
> > (malloc.c and heapinit.c).
> >
> > So it seems that for both Linux (gcc) and Win (msvc) the memory is
> > released to the operating system.
>
> How so? HeapFree does not return the memory to the system. From
>
> http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/default.asp?url=/library/en-us/memory/base/heap_functions.asp
>
> "Once the pages are committed, they are not decommitted until the
> process is terminated or until the heap is destroyed by calling the
> HeapDestroy function."

http://www.python.org/sf/1389051 agrees with the microsoft
documentation.  (where imaplib runs out of memory after read-
ing 2 megabytes of a 14 megabyte message).

</F>