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Mention that the garbage collection is convervative

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* doc/lispref/internals.texi (Garbage Collection): Mention that
we're using a conservative gc (bug#42013).
This commit is contained in:
Lars Ingebrigtsen 2021-09-16 17:13:11 +02:00
parent 2598b8874e
commit 928c162673
1 changed files with 11 additions and 7 deletions
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18
doc/lispref/internals.texi
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@ -337,18 +337,22 @@ by the vector allocation code while iterating over the vector blocks.
It is quite common to use some storage for a while, then release it
by (for example) killing a buffer or deleting the last pointer to an
object. Emacs provides a @dfn{garbage collector} to reclaim this
abandoned storage. The garbage collector operates by finding and
marking all Lisp objects that are still accessible to Lisp programs.
To begin with, it assumes all the symbols, their values and associated
function definitions, and any data presently on the stack, are
accessible. Any objects that can be reached indirectly through other
accessible objects are also accessible.
abandoned storage. The garbage collector operates, in essence, by
finding and marking all Lisp objects that are still accessible to Lisp
programs. To begin with, it assumes all the symbols, their values and
associated function definitions, and any data presently on the stack,
are accessible. Any objects that can be reached indirectly through
other accessible objects are also accessible, but this calculation is
done ``conservatively'', so it may slightly overestimate how many
objects that are accessible.
When marking is finished, all objects still unmarked are garbage. No
matter what the Lisp program or the user does, it is impossible to refer
to them, since there is no longer a way to reach them. Their space
might as well be reused, since no one will miss them. The second
(sweep) phase of the garbage collector arranges to reuse them.
(sweep) phase of the garbage collector arranges to reuse them. (But
since the marking was done ``conservatively'', not all unused objects
are guaranteed to be garbage-collected by any one sweep.)
@c ??? Maybe add something describing weak hash tables here?