efficient Python object count

[darrenr]

Hello,

Does anyone know of an efficient way to get a count of the total
number of Python objects in CPython? The best solution I've been able
to find is len(gc.get_objects()) which unfortunately has to walk a C
linked list *and* creates a list containing all of the objects, when
all I need is an object count.

Thanks!

[Christian Heimes]

darrenr wrote:

Hello,

Does anyone know of an efficient way to get a count of the total
number of Python objects in CPython? The best solution I've been able
to find is len(gc.get_objects()) which unfortunately has to walk a C
linked list *and* creates a list containing all of the objects, when
all I need is an object count.

There is no way to get correct numbers with a standard Python compiler.
You have to use a special debug build but that requires debug builds of
all extensions too.
gc.get_object() lists only object that are maintained by gc. Several
types don't use gc, for example str, unicode, int, float, long and more.

Christian

[darrenr]

On Nov 6, 7:28*pm, Christian Heimes <[e-mail]:

darrenr wrote:

Hello,

Does anyone know of an efficient way to get a count of the total
number of Python objects in CPython? The best solution I've been able
to find is len(gc.get_objects()) which unfortunately has to walk a C
linked list *and* creates a list containing all of the objects, when
all I need is an object count.

There is no way to get correct numbers with a standard Python compiler.
You have to use a special debug build but that requires debug builds of
all extensions too.
gc.get_object() lists only object that are maintained by gc. Several
types don't use gc, for example str, unicode, int, float, long and more.

Christian

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you provide a link to more
information on the debug build you refer to?

[darrenr]

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you provide a link to more

information on the debug build you refer to?

A modified version of this algorithm should do the trick for my
purposes, it finds the non-containers that gc ignores. I don't care
how long it takes to compute, I just don't want the process to block
for long periods of time.

http://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/b.../GetAllObjects

[robert]

darrenr wrote:

>Thanks for the quick reply. Could you provide a link to more
information on the debug build you refer to?

A modified version of this algorithm should do the trick for my
purposes, it finds the non-containers that gc ignores. I don't care
how long it takes to compute, I just don't want the process to block
for long periods of time.

http://utcc.utoronto.ca/~cks/space/b.../GetAllObjects

Once I had a strange memory leak in a long running process. This
turned out to be a problem of objects filing up in gc.garbage
("uncollectables").
I think those objects where also not reachable through
gc.get_objects() - as used by the script above. So be aware. Maybe
you've got the same motive for your counter.
I was somewhat stunn seeing, that obviously almost any serious
bigger app needs to watch and handle/free the gc.garbarge list "by
hand", to remain stable.
Robert

[Christian Heimes]

darrenr wrote:

Thanks for the quick reply. Could you provide a link to more
information on the debug build you refer to?

Here you are:
http://svn.python.org/projects/pytho...cialBuilds.txt

[darrenr]

Here you are:http://svn.python.org/projects/pytho...5-maint/Misc/S...

Excellent, thank you.