[GHC] #698: GHC's internal memory allocator never releases memory back to the OS

GHC trac at galois.com
Wed Sep 16 07:20:48 EDT 2009


#698: GHC's internal memory allocator never releases memory back to the OS
---------------------------------+------------------------------------------
    Reporter:  guest             |        Owner:  igloo           
        Type:  bug               |       Status:  new             
    Priority:  low               |    Milestone:  6.12 branch     
   Component:  Runtime System    |      Version:  6.4.1           
    Severity:  normal            |   Resolution:                  
    Keywords:                    |   Difficulty:  Moderate (1 day)
    Testcase:  N/A               |           Os:  Linux           
Architecture:  Unknown/Multiple  |  
---------------------------------+------------------------------------------
Changes (by NeilMitchell):

 * cc: ndmitchell at gmail.com (added)

Comment:

 This issue is much more important now we have dll's. Imagine a program
 that calls out to a Haskell dll, and then returns some result. If the
 intermediate computation uses 200Mb of RAM then after returning it's very
 easy to have 200Mb of heap with virtually nothing in it. The argument that
 other Haskell bit's will soon reuse that heap is also less valid with
 dll's, as the main program will not be sharing the same heap.

-- 
Ticket URL: <http://hackage.haskell.org/trac/ghc/ticket/698#comment:15>
GHC <http://www.haskell.org/ghc/>
The Glasgow Haskell Compiler


More information about the Glasgow-haskell-bugs mailing list