Issue #19783 has been updated by ko1 (Koichi Sasada). * [Bug #19436] is fixed by checking inline method cache data structures. * So the rest motivation is to support weak reference natively and I don't against about it. * I have two concerns. 1. memory allocation during GC Allocating memory during GC is not good idea in general (because it can be called when memory is not enough). How about to pass the data structure like that? ```C struct weak_ref { VALUE v; struct weak_ref *prev; }; rb_gc_mark_weak(struct weak_ref *ref) { ref->prev = objspace->weaks; objspace->weaks = ref; } mark(){ // do mark all // check weaks struct weak_ref *wref = objspace->weaks; while (wref) { ... } } ``` It doesn't need more allocation while GC. Making such imemo data is also acceptable. 2. huge wrefs I understand it takes proportional time to marking wref counts (the number of `rb_gc_mark_weak()`). I think there is no so much wrefs (especially CME doesn't need it) but it can take a time if there are so many wrefs in an application. Could you make such benchmark? ---------------------------------------- Feature #19783: Weak References in the GC https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19783#change-104217 * Author: peterzhu2118 (Peter Zhu) * Status: Open * Priority: Normal ---------------------------------------- GitHub PR: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8113 I'm proposing support for weak references in the Ruby garbage collector. This feature adds a new function called `void rb_gc_mark_weak(VALUE *ptr)` which marks `*ptr` as weak, meaning that if no other object strongly marks `*ptr` (using `rb_gc_mark` or `rb_gc_mark_movable`), then it will be overwritten with `*ptr = Qundef`. Weak references are implemented using a buffer in `objspace` that stores all the `ptr` in the latest marking phase. After marking has finished, we iterate over the buffer and check if the `*ptr` is a dead object. If it is, then we set `*ptr = Qundef`. Weak references are implemented on the callable method entry (CME) of callcaches, which fixes issue #19436. Weak references are also implemented on `ObjectSpace::WeakMap` and `ObjectSpace::WeakKeyMap`, which have: - Significantly simpler implementations because we no longer need to have multiple tables and do not need to define finalizers on the objects. - Support for compaction because finalizers pin objects and we no longer need to define finalizers on the objects. - Much faster performance (see [benchmarks](#microbenchmarks)). ## Metrics This patch also adds two metrics, `GC.latest_gc_info(:weak_references_count)` and `GC.latest_gc_info(:retained_weak_references_count)`. These two metrics returns information about the number of weak references registered and the number of weak references retained (references that did not point to a dead object) in the last GC cycle. ## Benchmark results ### YJIT-bench We see largely no change in performance or memory usage after this feature. ``` -------------- --------- ---------- --------- ----------- ---------- --------- -------------- ----------- bench base (ms) stddev (%) RSS (MiB) branch (ms) stddev (%) RSS (MiB) branch 1st itr base/branch activerecord 72.3 2.2 51.9 72.9 2.2 51.9 0.99 0.99 chunky-png 889.2 0.3 43.9 874.5 0.3 42.5 1.02 1.02 erubi-rails 21.2 13.5 90.7 21.0 13.3 90.9 1.01 1.01 hexapdf 2557.0 0.8 157.1 2559.2 0.7 197.1 1.01 1.00 liquid-c 65.2 0.4 34.5 65.4 0.4 34.5 0.99 1.00 liquid-compile 62.5 0.4 30.9 62.2 0.4 31.0 1.00 1.01 liquid-render 164.6 0.4 33.1 162.6 0.3 33.1 1.01 1.01 mail 133.3 0.1 46.4 134.4 0.2 46.4 1.03 0.99 psych-load 2066.6 0.2 31.6 2083.6 0.1 31.6 0.99 0.99 railsbench 2027.0 0.5 88.8 2019.4 0.5 89.0 1.01 1.00 ruby-lsp 65.6 3.0 90.1 65.4 3.1 88.5 1.00 1.00 sequel 73.1 1.1 36.6 73.1 1.1 36.6 1.00 1.00 -------------- --------- ---------- --------- ----------- ---------- --------- -------------- ----------- ``` ### Microbenchmarks We can see signficantly improved performance in `ObjectSpace::WeakMap`, with `ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[]=` being nearly 3x faster. Base: ``` ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[]= 1.037M (± 0.5%) i/s - 5.262M in 5.072833s ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[] 12.367M (± 0.9%) i/s - 62.479M in 5.052365s ``` Branch: ``` ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[]= 3.054M (± 0.3%) i/s - 15.448M in 5.058783s ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[] 15.796M (± 4.8%) i/s - 79.245M in 5.028583s ``` Code: ```ruby require "bundler/inline" gemfile do source "https://rubygems.org" gem "benchmark-ips" end wmap = ObjectSpace::WeakMap.new key = Object.new val = Object.new wmap[key] = val Benchmark.ips do |x| x.report("ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[]=") do |times| i = 0 while i < times wmap[Object.new] = Object.new i += 1 end end x.report("ObjectSpace::WeakMap#[]") do |times| i = 0 while i < times wmap[key] wmap[val] # does not exist i += 1 end end end ``` -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/