Method gc()

Method gc

int gc(mapping|array|void quick)

Description

Force garbage collection.

Parameter quick

Perform a quick garbage collection on just this value, which must have been made weak by set_weak_flag(). All values that only have a single reference from quick will then be freed.

When quick hasn't been specified or is UNDEFINED, this function checks all the memory for cyclic structures such as arrays containing themselves and frees them if appropriate. It also frees up destructed objects and things with only weak references.

Normally there is no need to call this function since Pike will call it by itself every now and then. (Pike will try to predict when 20% of all arrays/object/programs in memory is 'garbage' and call this routine then.)

Returns

The amount of garbage is returned. This is the number of arrays, mappings, multisets, objects and programs that had no nonweak external references during the garbage collection. It's normally the same as the number of freed things, but there might be some difference since _destruct() functions are called during freeing, which can cause more things to be freed or allocated.

See also

Pike.gc_parameters, Debug.gc_status