> I get different numbers from you. If I run "./python -v -c pass", most 
> modules in the "wiping" phase are C extension modules, which is expected. 
> Pretty much every pure Python module ends up garbage collected before 
> that.

The *module* gets gc'ed, sure.  But you can't tell from "./python -v -c pass" when the *module dict* get gc'ed.

Using "./python -v check_purging.py", before the purging stage (# cleanup [3]) I only get

# purge/gc operator 54
# purge/gc io 53
# purge/gc keyword 52
# purge/gc types 51
# purge/gc sysconfig 50

That leaves lots of pure python module dicts to be purged later on.