Garbage collector noob

[Sean Kelly]

torhu wrote:
> Derek Parnell wrote:
>> On Wed, 07 Mar 2007 06:15:16 +0100, torhu wrote:
>>> Now I want to work more closely with the GC.  Can anyone explain to 
>>> me why fullCollect doesn't seem to do anything here? 
>>
>> There is quite a large portion of the fullCollect source which is 
>> commented
>> out in phobos, mainly in the section which reclaims RAM (I think).
> 
> Do you mean gcx.d, line 1619?  That would explain some things. There's 
> also something  else of interest in that file:
> 
> void minimize()    // minimize physical memory usage
> {
>     // Not implemented, ignore
> }
> 
> Is this really the one being called as std.gc.minimize?  Looks like it. 
>  I wish I had known this before.  I guess I should file a bug report; 
> either implement it or make the docs state that it is currently not 
> implemented.
> 
> If I knew what fullCollect() really was supposed to do, I could include 
> that in the bug report too.  I'm hoping someone with a better 
> understanding of this than me can help out here.

fullCollect performs a full collection of orphaned memory.  With the 
current GC, this memory is recovered for future use by the GC, but it 
not returned to the OS.