The patch implements gc.compact_freelists() which calls PyInt and
PyFloat_CompactFreeList(). I've moved the code from the _Fini methods to
the _CompactFreeList() methods.

The patch also moves the clear type cache function to gc.clear_type_cache().

I've moved the methods back to the sys module and added API docs for the
C and Python code.

I think sys is appropriate for clearing the cache.  Lib/test/regrtest.py
still has a reference to gc rather than sys.

Why do the CompactFreeList APIs return an int that is always 0?  Seems
like they should return a real value or be void.

I'm not sure why you changed the functions to keep a block_list_length.
 I doubt this API would be requested very often.  Seems like it would be
better to just calculate when necessary (or perhaps not even add the APIs).

The only issue I have with the patch is the casting in the printf calls.
 These can lose information.  On Win64, long is 32-bits, but size_t is
64-bits.  See PY_FORMAT_SIZE_T in Include/pyport.h for how to handle this.

I've set the stage to patch review becasue I think this reflects the accepted resolution.  I don't understand why this hasn't been committed, anyone?

The remarks above haven't been addressed. The feature is OK, but the patch is not yet perfect.

I don't know what the purpose of this feature is nor who the target users are. Trying to micro-manage the interpreter's resource allocation from Python code is certainly a losing battle, and does not warrant relying on implementation-specific APIs. Moreover, these days gc.collect() implicitly collects the freelists.

I therefore recommend rejecting this patch.

messages: + msg150275
nosy: + pitrou

versions: + Python 3.3, - Python 3.2

messages: + msg116938
stage: patch review