memory leak with dynamically defined functions?

[Neil Schemenauer]

Skip Montanaro wrote:
>     zooko> But if I allocate memory and store a reference to it in a default
>     zooko> argument to an inner function, like this:
> 
>     >>> def silliest_func():
>     >>>     x = [0] * (2**10)
>     >>>     def inner_silliest_func(x=x):
>     >>>         pass
>     >>>     return inner_silliest_func
>     >>> 
>     >>> blarg = {}
>     >>> for i in range(2**13):
>     >>>     blarg[i] = silliest_func()
> 
>     zooko> and then remove the references to this memory, like this:
> 
>     >>> del blarg
> 
>     zooko> none of the memory is freed up!

If I do this:

    while 1:
        blarg = {}
        for i in range(2**13):
            blarg[i] = silliest_func()

the Python process size seems to remain constant.  Are you sure this
leaks memory?  I'm testing with Python 1.5.2 BTW.

  Neil