[Python-Dev] refleaks and caches

[Christian Heimes]

Neal Norwitz wrote:
> I'm not sure we should expose an API to clear the cache, but I don't
> have strong opinions either way.  If we keep the ability to clear the
> cache, should we also consider some control over the int/float
> freelist?  These are worse than the tuple/frame free lists since
> int/floats are unbounded.  I suspect the method free lists in
> Objects/methodobject.c and Objects/classobject.c don't have that many
> entries that could be removed.

Do the int/float free lists cause any trouble or can they eat lots of
memory? And what about the string intern list?

> The biggest problem I have with the patch is the attribute name.  I
> would prefer underscores.  ie _clear_type_cache instead of
> _cleartypecache.  Attributes in sys are currently inconsistent, but it
> seems that most of the newer names have underscores.  (Aside: if we
> are going to move attrs out of sys for py3k, we should consider
> renaming them to be consistent too.  Regardless of moving them, should
> we rename them.)

The attribute name is the least problem. It's easy to fix. Brett came up
with a nice idea, too. He suggested the gc module as the place for the
function.

Christian