module GC

The GC module provides an interface to Ruby’s mark and sweep garbage collection mechanism.

Some of the underlying methods are also available via the ObjectSpace module.

You may obtain information about the operation of the GC through GC::Profiler.

Constants

INTERNAL_CONSTANTS

internal constants

OPTS

GC build options

Public Class Methods

add_stress_to_class(class[, ...]) click to toggle source

Raises NoMemoryError when allocating an instance of the given classes.

static VALUE
rb_gcdebug_add_stress_to_class(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    rb_objspace_t *objspace = &rb_objspace;

    if (!stress_to_class) {
        stress_to_class = rb_ary_tmp_new(argc);
    }
    rb_ary_cat(stress_to_class, argv, argc);
    return self;
}
compact() click to toggle source
# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 158
def self.compact
  __builtin_rb_gc_compact
end
count → Integer click to toggle source

The number of times GC occurred.

It returns the number of times GC occurred since the process started.

# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 99
def self.count
  __builtin_gc_count
end
disable → true or false click to toggle source

Disables garbage collection, returning true if garbage collection was already disabled.

GC.disable   #=> false
GC.disable   #=> true
# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 63
def self.disable
  __builtin_gc_disable
end
enable → true or false click to toggle source

Enables garbage collection, returning true if garbage collection was previously disabled.

GC.disable   #=> false
GC.enable    #=> true
GC.enable    #=> false
# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 51
def self.enable
  __builtin_gc_enable
end
latest_gc_info -> {:gc_by→:newobj} click to toggle source
latest_gc_info(hash) → hash
latest_gc_info(:major_by) → :malloc

Returns information about the most recent garbage collection.

# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 154
def self.latest_gc_info hash_or_key = nil
  __builtin_gc_latest_gc_info hash_or_key
end
malloc_allocated_size → Integer click to toggle source

Returns the size of memory allocated by malloc().

Only available if ruby was built with CALC_EXACT_MALLOC_SIZE.

static VALUE
gc_malloc_allocated_size(VALUE self)
{
    return UINT2NUM(rb_objspace.malloc_params.allocated_size);
}
malloc_allocations → Integer click to toggle source

Returns the number of malloc() allocations.

Only available if ruby was built with CALC_EXACT_MALLOC_SIZE.

static VALUE
gc_malloc_allocations(VALUE self)
{
    return UINT2NUM(rb_objspace.malloc_params.allocations);
}
remove_stress_to_class(class[, ...]) click to toggle source

No longer raises NoMemoryError when allocating an instance of the given classes.

static VALUE
rb_gcdebug_remove_stress_to_class(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE self)
{
    rb_objspace_t *objspace = &rb_objspace;
    int i;

    if (stress_to_class) {
        for (i = 0; i < argc; ++i) {
            rb_ary_delete_same(stress_to_class, argv[i]);
        }
        if (RARRAY_LEN(stress_to_class) == 0) {
            stress_to_class = 0;
        }
    }
    return Qnil;
}
start → nil click to toggle source
garbage_collect → nil
include GC; garbage_collect → nil
start(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true) → nil
garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true) → nil
include GC; garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true) → nil

Initiates garbage collection, even if manually disabled.

This method is defined with keyword arguments that default to true:

def GC.start(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true); end

Use full_mark: false to perform a minor GC. Use immediate_sweep: false to defer sweeping (use lazy sweep).

Note: These keyword arguments are implementation and version dependent. They are not guaranteed to be future-compatible, and may be ignored if the underlying implementation does not support them.

# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 33
def self.start full_mark: true, immediate_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true
  __builtin_gc_start_internal full_mark, immediate_mark, immediate_sweep
end
stat → Hash click to toggle source
stat(hash) → hash
stat(:key) → Numeric

Returns a Hash containing information about the GC.

The hash includes information about internal statistics about GC such as:

{
    :count=>0,
    :heap_allocated_pages=>24,
    :heap_sorted_length=>24,
    :heap_allocatable_pages=>0,
    :heap_available_slots=>9783,
    :heap_live_slots=>7713,
    :heap_free_slots=>2070,
    :heap_final_slots=>0,
    :heap_marked_slots=>0,
    :heap_eden_pages=>24,
    :heap_tomb_pages=>0,
    :total_allocated_pages=>24,
    :total_freed_pages=>0,
    :total_allocated_objects=>7796,
    :total_freed_objects=>83,
    :malloc_increase_bytes=>2389312,
    :malloc_increase_bytes_limit=>16777216,
    :minor_gc_count=>0,
    :major_gc_count=>0,
    :remembered_wb_unprotected_objects=>0,
    :remembered_wb_unprotected_objects_limit=>0,
    :old_objects=>0,
    :old_objects_limit=>0,
    :oldmalloc_increase_bytes=>2389760,
    :oldmalloc_increase_bytes_limit=>16777216
}

The contents of the hash are implementation specific and may be changed in the future.

This method is only expected to work on C Ruby.

# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 144
def self.stat hash_or_key = nil
  __builtin_gc_stat hash_or_key
end
stress → integer, true or false click to toggle source

Returns current status of GC stress mode.

# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 71
def self.stress
  __builtin_gc_stress_get
end
stress = flag → flag click to toggle source

Updates the GC stress mode.

When stress mode is enabled, the GC is invoked at every GC opportunity: all memory and object allocations.

Enabling stress mode will degrade performance, it is only for debugging.

flag can be true, false, or an integer bit-ORed following flags.

0x01:: no major GC
0x02:: no immediate sweep
0x04:: full mark after malloc/calloc/realloc
# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 89
def self.stress=(flag)
  __builtin_gc_stress_set_m flag
end
verify_compaction_references(toward: nil, double_heap: nil) → nil click to toggle source

Verify compaction reference consistency.

This method is implementation specific. During compaction, objects that were moved are replaced with T_MOVED objects. No object should have a reference to a T_MOVED object after compaction.

This function doubles the heap to ensure room to move all objects, compacts the heap to make sure everything moves, updates all references, then performs a full GC. If any object contains a reference to a T_MOVED object, that object should be pushed on the mark stack, and will make a SEGV.

static VALUE
gc_verify_compaction_references(int argc, VALUE *argv, VALUE mod)
{
    rb_objspace_t *objspace = &rb_objspace;
    int use_toward_empty = FALSE;
    int use_double_pages = FALSE;

    if (dont_gc) return Qnil;

    VALUE opt = Qnil;
    static ID keyword_ids[2];
    VALUE kwvals[2];

    kwvals[1] = Qtrue;

    rb_scan_args(argc, argv, "0:", &opt);

    if (!NIL_P(opt)) {
        if (!keyword_ids[0]) {
            keyword_ids[0] = rb_intern("toward");
            keyword_ids[1] = rb_intern("double_heap");
        }

        rb_get_kwargs(opt, keyword_ids, 0, 2, kwvals);
        if (kwvals[0] != Qundef && rb_intern("empty") == rb_sym2id(kwvals[0])) {
            use_toward_empty = TRUE;
        }
        if (kwvals[1] != Qundef && RTEST(kwvals[1])) {
            use_double_pages = TRUE;
        }
    }

    gc_compact(objspace, use_toward_empty, use_double_pages, TRUE);
    return gc_compact_stats(objspace);
}
verify_internal_consistency → nil click to toggle source

Verify internal consistency.

This method is implementation specific. Now this method checks generational consistency if RGenGC is supported.

static VALUE
gc_verify_internal_consistency_m(VALUE dummy)
{
    gc_verify_internal_consistency(&rb_objspace);

    return Qnil;
}
verify_transient_heap_internal_consistency() click to toggle source
static VALUE
gc_verify_transient_heap_internal_consistency(VALUE dmy)
{
    rb_transient_heap_verify();
    return Qnil;
}

Public Instance Methods

garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true) click to toggle source
# File ruby_2_7_6/gc.rb, line 37
def garbage_collect full_mark: true, immediate_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true
  __builtin_gc_start_internal full_mark, immediate_mark, immediate_sweep
end