Issue #19993 has been updated by HParker (Adam Hess). I can't think of a situation where an environment variable is worse then a command line option, so I am going to update the PR to just use a environment variable. It should make testing in environments like Rails apps easier. ---------------------------------------- Feature #19993: Optionally Free all memory at exit https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19993#change-105245 * Author: HParker (Adam Hess) * Status: Open * Priority: Normal ---------------------------------------- Add a runtime option allowing Ruby to optionally free all memory at shutdown. # why Today, memory sanitizers are difficult to use with Ruby, since not all memory is freed at shutdown. it is difficult to detect memory leaks or errors in Ruby or in Ruby C extensions when these tools are not available. While implementing this feature, we were able to identify and fix a number of memory leaks and errors. https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8556 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8512 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8503 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8487 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8452 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8501 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8481 https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8555 This shows that having access to tools like this can make finding and fixing memory bugs easier. # current progress Today we can allow ruby developers to enable freeing memory at shutdown via the `free-at-shutdown` runtime option. PR: https://github.com/ruby/ruby/pull/8868 running, without `--free-on-shutdown`: ``` valgrind --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all --track-origins=yes -- ./miniruby basictest/test.rb ``` ``` ==573270== LEAK SUMMARY: ==573270== definitely lost: 658,324 bytes in 5,387 blocks ==573270== indirectly lost: 955,708 bytes in 11,957 blocks ==573270== possibly lost: 2,071,096 bytes in 12 blocks ==573270== still reachable: 161,881 bytes in 275 blocks ==573270== suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks ==573270== Reachable blocks (those to which a pointer was found) are not shown. ==573270== To see them, rerun with: --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all ``` with `--free-on-shutdown` ``` valgrind --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all --track-origins=yes -- ./miniruby --free-on-shutdown basictest/test.rb ``` ``` ==573306== HEAP SUMMARY: ==573306== in use at exit: 0 bytes in 0 blocks ==573306== total heap usage: 43,643 allocs, 43,643 frees, 29,222,534 bytes allocated ==573306== ==573306== All heap blocks were freed -- no leaks are possible ``` # future plans * Continue improving memory safety * add `valgrind --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all --track-origins=yes -- ./miniruby --free-on-shutdown basictest/test.rb` to CI * Allow C extensions to do a "optional destruct for memory safety" so they can leverage the same memory sanitizer tools. -- https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/