Issue #19783 has been reported by peterzhu2118 (Peter Zhu). ---------------------------------------- Feature #19783: Weak References in the GC https://bugs.ruby-lang.org/issues/19783 * 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)). ## 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/