Module: GC
Overview
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 Profiler.
Constant Summary
- 
    INTERNAL_CONSTANTS =
    # File 'gc.c', line 11907internal constants gc_constants
- 
    OPTS =
    # File 'gc.c', line 11972GCbuild optionsopts = rb_ary_new() 
Class Attribute Summary
- 
    
      .stress  ⇒ Boolean 
    
    rw
    Returns current status of GCstress mode.
- 
    
      .stress=(flag)  ⇒ flag 
    
    rw
    Updates the GCstress mode.
Class Method Summary
- 
    
      .add_stress_to_class(class[, ...])  
    
    Raises NoMemoryError when allocating an instance of the given classes. 
- .compact
- 
    
      .count  ⇒ Integer 
    
    The number of times GCoccurred.
- 
    
      .disable  ⇒ Boolean 
    
    Disables garbage collection, returning trueif garbage collection was already disabled.
- 
    
      .enable  ⇒ Boolean 
    
    Enables garbage collection, returning trueif garbage collection was previously disabled.
- 
    
      .latest_gc_info  ⇒ GC 
    
    Returns information about the most recent garbage collection. 
- 
    
      .malloc_allocated_size  ⇒ Integer 
    
    Returns the size of memory allocated by malloc(). 
- 
    
      .malloc_allocations  ⇒ Integer 
    
    Returns the number of malloc() allocations. 
- 
    
      .remove_stress_to_class(class[, ...])  
    
    No longer raises ::NoMemoryErrorwhen allocating an instance of the given classes.
- 
    
      .start  ⇒ nil 
    
    Initiates garbage collection, even if manually disabled. 
- 
    
      .stat  ⇒ Hash 
    
    Returns a ::Hashcontaining information about theGC.
- 
    
      .verify_compaction_references(toward: nil, double_heap: nil)  ⇒ nil 
    
    Verify compaction reference consistency. 
- 
    
      .verify_internal_consistency  ⇒ nil 
    
    Verify internal consistency. 
- .verify_transient_heap_internal_consistency
Instance Method Summary
Class Attribute Details
    .stress  ⇒ Boolean  (rw)  
Returns current status of GC stress mode.
# File 'gc.rb', line 71
def self.stress __builtin_gc_stress_get end
    .stress=(flag)  ⇒ flag  (rw)  
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 'gc.rb', line 89
def self.stress=(flag) __builtin_gc_stress_set_m flag end
Class Method Details
.add_stress_to_class(class[, ...])
Raises NoMemoryError when allocating an instance of the given classes.
# File 'gc.c', line 11796
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
[ GitHub ]# File 'gc.rb', line 158
def self.compact __builtin_rb_gc_compact end
.count ⇒ Integer
The number of times GC occurred.
It returns the number of times GC occurred since the process started.
# File 'gc.rb', line 99
def self.count __builtin_gc_count end
    .disable  ⇒ Boolean   
Disables garbage collection, returning true if garbage collection was already disabled.
GC.disable   #=> false
GC.disable   #=> true# File 'gc.rb', line 63
def self.disable __builtin_gc_disable end
    .enable  ⇒ Boolean   
Enables garbage collection, returning true if garbage collection was previously disabled.
GC.disable   #=> false
GC.enable    #=> true
GC.enable    #=> false# File 'gc.rb', line 51
def self.enable __builtin_gc_enable end
Returns information about the most recent garbage collection.
# File '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
Returns the size of memory allocated by malloc().
Only available if ruby was built with CALC_EXACT_MALLOC_SIZE.
# File 'gc.c', line 10310
static VALUE
gc_malloc_allocated_size(VALUE self)
{
    return UINT2NUM(rb_objspace.malloc_params.allocated_size);
}
  .malloc_allocations ⇒ Integer
Returns the number of malloc() allocations.
Only available if ruby was built with CALC_EXACT_MALLOC_SIZE.
# File 'gc.c', line 10325
static VALUE
gc_malloc_allocations(VALUE self)
{
    return UINT2NUM(rb_objspace.malloc_params.allocations);
}
  .remove_stress_to_class(class[, ...])
No longer raises ::NoMemoryError when allocating an instance of the given classes.
# File 'gc.c', line 11816
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 
      ObjectSpace.garbage_collect  ⇒ nil 
      .include(GC; garbage_collect)  ⇒ nil 
      .start(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true)  ⇒ nil 
      ObjectSpace.garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true)  ⇒ nil 
      .include(GC; garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true)  ⇒ nil 
    
  
nil 
      ObjectSpace.garbage_collect  ⇒ nil 
      .include(GC; garbage_collect)  ⇒ nil 
      .start(full_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true)  ⇒ nil 
      ObjectSpace.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); endUse 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 '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
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 'gc.rb', line 144
def self.stat hash_or_key = nil __builtin_gc_stat hash_or_key end
    .verify_compaction_references(toward: nil, double_heap: nil)  ⇒ nil   
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.
# File 'gc.c', line 8651
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   
Verify internal consistency.
This method is implementation specific. Now this method checks generational consistency if RGenGC is supported.
# File 'gc.c', line 6137
static VALUE
gc_verify_internal_consistency_m(VALUE dummy)
{
    gc_verify_internal_consistency(&rb_objspace);
    return Qnil;
}
  .verify_transient_heap_internal_consistency
[ GitHub ]# File 'gc.c', line 6223
static VALUE
gc_verify_transient_heap_internal_consistency(VALUE dmy)
{
    rb_transient_heap_verify();
    return Qnil;
}
  Instance Method Details
#garbage_collect(full_mark: true, immediate_mark: true, immediate_sweep: true)
[ GitHub ]# File '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