Merge pull request #843 from gradha/pr_gc_docs

Adds note about manual memory handling to GC doc.
This commit is contained in:
Andreas Rumpf
2014-02-01 15:55:55 -08:00

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@@ -107,3 +107,20 @@ that up to 100 objects are traversed and freed before it checks again. Thus
``workPackage`` affects the timing granularity and may need to be tweaked in
highly specialized environments or for older hardware.
Keeping track of memory
-----------------------
If you need to pass around memory allocated by Nimrod to C, you can use the
procs ``GC_ref`` and ``GC_unref`` to mark objects as referenced to avoid them
being freed by the GC. Other useful procs from `system <system.html>`_ you can
use to keep track of memory are:
* getTotalMem(): returns the amount of total memory managed by the GC.
* getOccupiedMem(): bytes reserved by the GC and used by objects.
* getFreeMem(): bytes reserved by the GC and not in use.
In addition to ``GC_ref`` and ``GC_unref`` you can avoid the GC by manually
allocating memory with procs like ``alloc``, ``allocShared``, or
``allocCStringArray``. The GC won't try to free them, you need to call their
respective *dealloc* pairs when you are done with them or they will leak.