Tracking down a memory leak

[Paul Rubin]

kip_macy at yahoo.com (Kip Macy) writes:
> I have a long running python program that typically uses 6-7MB. It can 
> happily run for days without any problems, but periodically it will balloon
> and use up all available memory and swap. I'm aware that the presence of
> circular reference can defeat garbage collection. Are there any recommended
> utilities or methods for determining what data structures are using up all
> available memory?

Is it a pure python program?  I'd be suspicious of any nonstandard C
modules that you might be using.  I've seen some of them leak memory.