[Python-Dev] Reduce memory footprint of Python

[Georg Brandl]

Am 06.10.2013 17:32, schrieb Victor Stinner:
> Hi,
> 
> Slowly, I'm trying to see if it would be possible to reduce the memory
> footprint of Python using the tracemalloc module.
> 
> First, I noticed that linecache can allocate more than 2 MB. What do
> you think of adding a registry of "clear cache" functions? For
> exemple, re.purge() and linecache.clearcache(). gc.collect() clears
> free lists. I don't know if gc.collect() should be related to this new
> registy (clear all caches) or not.
> 
> The dictionary of interned Unicode strings can be large: up to 1.5 MB
> (with +30,000 strings). Just the dictionary, excluding size of
> strings. Is the size normal or not? Using tracemalloc, this dictionary
> is usually to largest memory block.
> 
> unittest doesn't look to release memory (the TestCase class) after the
> execution of a test.
> 
> test_import.test_module_with_large_stack() creates a large Python
> module and import it, but it does not unload it.

That does not seem very important, except if people execute test_import
on every interpreter startup :)

> Should I open a separated issue for each idea to track them in the bug
> tracker, or a global issue?

Since the points you mention here are so diverse, it would be good to have
separate issues.

cheers,
Georg