Provided by: ocaml-man_4.13.1-6ubuntu1_all bug

NAME

       Gc - Memory management control and statistics; finalised values.

Module

       Module   Gc

Documentation

       Module Gc
        : sig end

       Memory management control and statistics; finalised values.

       type stat = {
        minor_words  :  float ;  (* Number of words allocated in the minor heap since the program
       was started.
        *)
        promoted_words : float ;  (* Number of words allocated in the minor heap that survived  a
       minor collection and were moved to the major heap since the program was started.
        *)
        major_words  :  float  ;   (*  Number of words allocated in the major heap, including the
       promoted words, since the program was started.
        *)
        minor_collections : int ;  (* Number of minor collections since the program was started.
        *)
        major_collections : int ;  (* Number of  major  collection  cycles  completed  since  the
       program was started.
        *)
        heap_words : int ;  (* Total size of the major heap, in words.
        *)
        heap_chunks  :  int  ;   (*  Number of contiguous pieces of memory that make up the major
       heap.
        *)
        live_words : int ;  (* Number of words of live data in  the  major  heap,  including  the
       header words.
        *)
        live_blocks : int ;  (* Number of live blocks in the major heap.
        *)
        free_words : int ;  (* Number of words in the free list.
        *)
        free_blocks : int ;  (* Number of blocks in the free list.
        *)
        largest_free : int ;  (* Size (in words) of the largest block in the free list.
        *)
        fragments  :  int  ;   (* Number of wasted words due to fragmentation.  These are 1-words
       free blocks placed between two live blocks.  They are not available for allocation.
        *)
        compactions : int ;  (* Number of heap compactions since the program was started.
        *)
        top_heap_words : int ;  (* Maximum size reached by the major heap, in words.
        *)
        stack_size : int ;  (* Current size of the stack, in words.

       Since 3.12.0
        *)
        forced_major_collections : int ;  (* Number of forced full  major  collections  completed
       since the program was started.

       Since 4.12.0
        *)
        }

       The memory management counters are returned in a stat record.

       The  total  amount  of  memory allocated by the program since it was started is (in words)
       minor_words + major_words - promoted_words .  Multiply by the word size  (4  on  a  32-bit
       machine, 8 on a 64-bit machine) to get the number of bytes.

       type control = {

       mutable  minor_heap_size : int ;  (* The size (in words) of the minor heap.  Changing this
       parameter will trigger a minor collection.  Default: 256k.
        *)

       mutable major_heap_increment : int ;  (* How much to add to the major heap when increasing
       it.  If  this number is less than or equal to 1000, it is a percentage of the current heap
       size (i.e. setting it to 100 will double the heap size at each increase). If  it  is  more
       than 1000, it is a fixed number of words that will be added to the heap. Default: 15.
        *)

       mutable  space_overhead  :  int  ;  (* The major GC speed is computed from this parameter.
       This is the memory that will be "wasted" because  the  GC  does  not  immediately  collect
       unreachable  blocks.   It  is  expressed as a percentage of the memory used for live data.
       The  GC  will  work  more  (use  more  CPU  time  and  collect  blocks  more  eagerly)  if
       space_overhead is smaller.  Default: 120.
        *)

       mutable  verbose : int ;  (* This value controls the GC messages on standard error output.
       It is a sum of some of the following flags, to print messages on the corresponding events:

       - 0x001 Start and end of major GC cycle.

       - 0x002 Minor collection and major GC slice.

       - 0x004 Growing and shrinking of the heap.

       - 0x008 Resizing of stacks and memory manager tables.

       - 0x010 Heap compaction.

       - 0x020 Change of GC parameters.

       - 0x040 Computation of major GC slice size.

       - 0x080 Calling of finalisation functions.

       - 0x100 Bytecode executable and shared library search at start-up.

       - 0x200 Computation of compaction-triggering condition.

       - 0x400 Output GC statistics at program exit.  Default: 0.

        *)

       mutable max_overhead : int ;  (* Heap compaction is triggered when the estimated amount of
       "wasted"  memory  is  more  than  max_overhead  percent  of  the  amount of live data.  If
       max_overhead is set to 0, heap compaction is triggered at the end of each major  GC  cycle
       (this  setting  is  intended  for  testing  purposes  only).  If max_overhead >= 1000000 ,
       compaction is never triggered.  If compaction is  permanently  disabled,  it  is  strongly
       suggested to set allocation_policy to 2.  Default: 500.
        *)

       mutable  stack_limit  :  int ;  (* The maximum size of the stack (in words).  This is only
       relevant to the byte-code runtime, as the native code runtime uses the operating  system's
       stack.  Default: 1024k.
        *)

       mutable  allocation_policy  :  int ;  (* The policy used for allocating in the major heap.
       Possible values are 0, 1 and 2.

       -0 is the next-fit policy,  which  is  usually  fast  but  can  result  in  fragmentation,
       increasing memory consumption.

       -1  is  the  first-fit policy, which avoids fragmentation but has corner cases (in certain
       realistic workloads) where it is sensibly slower.

       -2 is the best-fit policy, which is fast and avoids fragmentation. In our  experiments  it
       is faster and uses less memory than both next-fit and first-fit.  (since OCaml 4.10)

       The default is best-fit.

       On  one  example  that  was known to be bad for next-fit and first-fit, next-fit takes 28s
       using 855Mio of memory, first-fit takes 47s using 566Mio of  memory,  best-fit  takes  27s
       using 545Mio of memory.

       Note:  If  you  change to next-fit, you may need to reduce the space_overhead setting, for
       example using 80 instead of the default 120 which is tuned for best-fit.  Otherwise,  your
       program will need more memory.

       Note:  changing  the  allocation  policy  at run-time forces a heap compaction, which is a
       lengthy operation unless the heap is small (e.g. at the start of the program).

       Default: 2.

       Since 3.11.0
        *)
        window_size : int ;  (* The size of the window used by the major  GC  for  smoothing  out
       variations in its workload. This is an integer between 1 and 50.  Default: 1.

       Since 4.03.0
        *)
        custom_major_ratio  :  int  ;  (* Target ratio of floating garbage to major heap size for
       out-of-heap memory held by custom values located in  the  major  heap.  The  GC  speed  is
       adjusted  to  try  to  use  this  much  memory for dead values that are not yet collected.
       Expressed as a percentage of major heap size. The  default  value  keeps  the  out-of-heap
       floating  garbage about the same size as the in-heap overhead.  Note: this only applies to
       values allocated with caml_alloc_custom_mem (e.g. bigarrays).  Default: 44.

       Since 4.08.0
        *)
        custom_minor_ratio : int ;  (* Bound on floating garbage for out-of-heap memory  held  by
       custom  values in the minor heap. A minor GC is triggered when this much memory is held by
       custom values located in the minor heap. Expressed as a percentage  of  minor  heap  size.
       Note:  this  only applies to values allocated with caml_alloc_custom_mem (e.g. bigarrays).
       Default: 100.

       Since 4.08.0
        *)
        custom_minor_max_size : int ;  (* Maximum amount of out-of-heap memory  for  each  custom
       value  allocated in the minor heap. When a custom value is allocated on the minor heap and
       holds more than this many bytes, only this value is counted against custom_minor_ratio and
       the  rest  is  directly  counted  against custom_major_ratio .  Note: this only applies to
       values allocated with caml_alloc_custom_mem (e.g. bigarrays).  Default: 8192 bytes.

       Since 4.08.0
        *)
        }

       The GC parameters are given as a control record.  Note that these parameters can  also  be
       initialised  by  setting the OCAMLRUNPARAM environment variable.  See the documentation of
       ocamlrun .

       val stat : unit -> stat

       Return the current values of the memory  management  counters  in  a  stat  record.   This
       function examines every heap block to get the statistics.

       val quick_stat : unit -> stat

       Same  as  stat  except  that  live_words  ,  live_blocks  ,  free_words  ,  free_blocks  ,
       largest_free , and fragments are set to 0.  This function is much faster than stat because
       it does not need to go through the heap.

       val counters : unit -> float * float * float

       Return  (minor_words,  promoted_words,  major_words)  .   This  function  is  as  fast  as
       quick_stat .

       val minor_words : unit -> float

       Number of words allocated in the minor heap since the program was started. This number  is
       accurate  in  byte-code programs, but only an approximation in programs compiled to native
       code.

       In native code this function does not allocate.

       Since 4.04

       val get : unit -> control

       Return the current values of the GC parameters in a control record.

       val set : control -> unit

       set r changes the GC parameters according to the control record r .  The normal usage  is:
       Gc.set { (Gc.get()) with Gc.verbose = 0x00d }

       val minor : unit -> unit

       Trigger a minor collection.

       val major_slice : int -> int

       major_slice n Do a minor collection and a slice of major collection.  n is the size of the
       slice: the GC will do enough work to free (on average) n words of memory. If n = 0, the GC
       will  try  to  do  enough  work to ensure that the next automatic slice has no work to do.
       This function returns an unspecified integer (currently: 0).

       val major : unit -> unit

       Do a minor collection and finish the current major collection cycle.

       val full_major : unit -> unit

       Do a minor collection, finish the current major collection cycle, and perform  a  complete
       new cycle.  This will collect all currently unreachable blocks.

       val compact : unit -> unit

       Perform  a  full  major  collection  and compact the heap.  Note that heap compaction is a
       lengthy operation.

       val print_stat : out_channel -> unit

       Print the current values of the memory management counters (in human-readable  form)  into
       the channel argument.

       val allocated_bytes : unit -> float

       Return  the total number of bytes allocated since the program was started.  It is returned
       as a float to avoid overflow problems with int on 32-bit machines.

       val get_minor_free : unit -> int

       Return the current size of the free space inside the minor heap.

       Since 4.03.0

       val get_bucket : int -> int

       get_bucket n returns the current size of the n -th  future  bucket  of  the  GC  smoothing
       system. The unit is one millionth of a full GC.

       Since 4.03.0

       Raises  Invalid_argument  if  n  is  negative,  return 0 if n is larger than the smoothing
       window.

       val get_credit : unit -> int

       get_credit () returns the current size of the "work done in advance"  counter  of  the  GC
       smoothing system. The unit is one millionth of a full GC.

       Since 4.03.0

       val huge_fallback_count : unit -> int

       Return the number of times we tried to map huge pages and had to fall back to small pages.
       This is always 0 if OCAMLRUNPARAM contains H=1 .

       Since 4.03.0

       val finalise : ('a -> unit) -> 'a -> unit

       finalise f v registers f as a finalisation function for v .  v must be heap-allocated.   f
       will  be  called  with  v  as  argument  at  some  point  between the first time v becomes
       unreachable (including through weak pointers) and the time  v  is  collected  by  the  GC.
       Several  functions  can be registered for the same value, or even several instances of the
       same function.  Each instance will be called once (or never,  if  the  program  terminates
       before v becomes unreachable).

       The  GC  will  call the finalisation functions in the order of deallocation.  When several
       values become unreachable  at  the  same  time  (i.e.  during  the  same  GC  cycle),  the
       finalisation  functions  will be called in the reverse order of the corresponding calls to
       finalise .  If finalise is called in the same order as  the  values  are  allocated,  that
       means  each value is finalised before the values it depends upon.  Of course, this becomes
       false if additional dependencies are introduced by assignments.

       In the presence of multiple OCaml  threads  it  should  be  assumed  that  any  particular
       finaliser may be executed in any of the threads.

       Anything  reachable from the closure of finalisation functions is considered reachable, so
       the following code will not work as expected:

       - let v = ... in Gc.finalise (fun _ -> ...v...) v

       Instead you should make sure that v is not in the closure of the finalisation function  by
       writing:

       - let f = fun x -> ...  let v = ... in Gc.finalise f v

       The  f  function  can use all features of OCaml, including assignments that make the value
       reachable again.  It can also loop forever (in this case, the other finalisation functions
       will  not be called during the execution of f, unless it calls finalise_release ).  It can
       call finalise on v or other values to register other functions or  even  itself.   It  can
       raise  an  exception;  in  this case the exception will interrupt whatever the program was
       doing when the function was called.

       finalise will raise Invalid_argument if v is not guaranteed to  be  heap-allocated.   Some
       examples  of  values  that  are  not  heap-allocated  are integers, constant constructors,
       booleans, the empty array, the empty list, the unit value.  The  exact  list  of  what  is
       heap-allocated   or   not  is  implementation-dependent.   Some  constant  values  can  be
       heap-allocated but never deallocated during the lifetime of the  program,  for  example  a
       list  of  integer  constants;  this is also implementation-dependent.  Note that values of
       types float are sometimes allocated and sometimes not, so finalising them is  unsafe,  and
       finalise will also raise Invalid_argument for them. Values of type 'a Lazy.t (for any 'a )
       are like float in this respect, except that the compiler sometimes optimizes them in a way
       that   prevents   finalise   from  detecting  them.  In  this  case,  it  will  not  raise
       Invalid_argument , but you should still avoid calling finalise on lazy values.

       The results of calling String.make , Bytes.make , Bytes.create , Array.make , and ref  are
       guaranteed to be heap-allocated and non-constant except when the length argument is 0 .

       val finalise_last : (unit -> unit) -> 'a -> unit

       same  as Gc.finalise except the value is not given as argument. So you can't use the given
       value for the computation of the finalisation function. The benefit is that  the  function
       is  called  after the value is unreachable for the last time instead of the first time. So
       contrary to Gc.finalise the value  will  never  be  reachable  again  or  used  again.  In
       particular  every  weak  pointer and ephemeron that contained this value as key or data is
       unset before running  the  finalisation  function.  Moreover  the  finalisation  functions
       attached  with  Gc.finalise  are  always called before the finalisation functions attached
       with Gc.finalise_last .

       Since 4.04

       val finalise_release : unit -> unit

       A finalisation function may call finalise_release to tell the GC that it  can  launch  the
       next finalisation function without waiting for the current one to return.

       type alarm

       An  alarm is a piece of data that calls a user function at the end of each major GC cycle.
       The following functions are provided to create and delete alarms.

       val create_alarm : (unit -> unit) -> alarm

       create_alarm f will arrange for f to be called at the end of each major GC cycle, starting
       with  the  current  cycle or the next one.  A value of type alarm is returned that you can
       use to call delete_alarm .

       val delete_alarm : alarm -> unit

       delete_alarm a will stop the calls to the function associated to a . Calling  delete_alarm
       a again has no effect.

       val eventlog_pause : unit -> unit

       eventlog_pause  ()  will  pause  the  collection  of  traces  in  the runtime.  Traces are
       collected if the program is linked to  the  instrumented  runtime  and  started  with  the
       environment  variable  OCAML_EVENTLOG_ENABLED.   Events are flushed to disk after pausing,
       and no new events will be recorded until eventlog_resume is called.

       val eventlog_resume : unit -> unit

       eventlog_resume () will resume the collection  of  traces  in  the  runtime.   Traces  are
       collected  if  the  program  is  linked  to  the instrumented runtime and started with the
       environment  variable  OCAML_EVENTLOG_ENABLED.   This  call  can  be  used  after  calling
       eventlog_pause  ,  or  if  the  program  was started with OCAML_EVENTLOG_ENABLED=p. (which
       pauses the collection of traces before the first event.)

       module Memprof : sig end

       Memprof is a sampling engine for allocated  memory  words.  Every  allocated  word  has  a
       probability  of  being  sampled  equal  to  a  configurable sampling rate. Once a block is
       sampled, it becomes tracked. A tracked block triggers a user-defined callback as  soon  as
       it is allocated, promoted or deallocated.

       Since  blocks  are  composed  of several words, a block can potentially be sampled several
       times. If a block is sampled several times, then each of the callback is called  once  for
       each  event  of  this  block:  the  multiplicity  is  given  in the n_samples field of the
       allocation structure.

       This engine makes it possible to implement a low-overhead  memory  profiler  as  an  OCaml
       library.

       Note: this API is EXPERIMENTAL. It may change without prior notice.