[Bioperl-l] Memory leak in Bio::Root::Root?

[Mike Muratet]

Hello Again

I have discovered a few things. I took the methods out of the package they 
were in and put them directly into the calling module with the result that 
the memory consumption increased with bound. I therefore conclude that it 
has nothing to do with the Qstat class or Bio::Root::Root.

By commenting out various portions of the methods I have discovered that 
the (a?) single offending line is is:

($polyn = $tempseq)  =~ s/^\w{$lcount}(\w)\w*$/$1/;

I'm off trying to understand why this keeps sucking up memory.

Mike

On Wed, 14 Dec 2005, Stefan Kirov wrote:

> My two cents: have you looked for cyclic referencing. Then your objects will 
> not get destroyed properly. You can try Devel::Cycle to track those. If you 
> post some more code we may have better idea what is going on.
> Stefan
>
> Mike Muratet wrote:
>
>> 
>> 
>> Jason
>> 
>>> 
>>> polyn returns a scalar object (blessed) or just some scalar data?
>>> If you are really calling QStat->polyn( $obj) then 'new' is never called 
>>> in the first place for the Qstat package.
>>> 
>> 
>> polyn returns a reference to some scalar data. My understanding is that 
>> 'new' would not be called, but then I'm at a loss to explain where all the 
>> extra memory goes.
>> 
>>> Destructors are automatic, but you can create your own to see when/if 
>>> the destructor is called.
>>> sub DESTROY {
>>> my $self =shift;
>>> warn("I am calling destroy in the Qstat object\n");
>>> $self->SUPER::DESTROY;
>>> }
>> 
>> 
>> I will try this.
>> 
>>> You can also inherit from Bio::Root::RootI and call bless on your own if 
>>> you want to play with whether this is Bio::Root::Root induced behavior. 
>>> I'm not sure I understand enough of how it works to tell you where else 
>>> to look.
>>> 
>> 
>> I will try this, too.
>> 
>>> Is a new $seq_obj getting created every iteration of the loop?  Are 
>>> these getting cleaned up or is Qstat keeping references  to them, and 
>>> they are sticking around?  Devel::Cycle doesn't show any memory cycles?
>>> 
>> 
>> A new $seq_obj gets created in every loop of the method that calls QStats 
>> with the $seq_obj as an argument, but I undef it at the bottom of the 
>> loop. Should this not be enough to get perl to recycle the memory? I 
>> haven't tried Devel::Cycle but I will include it to see what it says.
>> 
>> I saw on some of the perl lists a reference to a memory leak in perl 5.8 
>> with the s/// operator. Have you heard about such a problem?
>> 
>> Thanks for the help
>> 
>> Mike
>> 
>>> On Dec 13, 2005, at 11:32 AM, Mike Muratet wrote:
>>> 
>>>> Greetings all
>>>> 
>>>> I have a problem that surpasses what I know and what I've been able to 
>>>> glean from perltoot,perboot,etc. Maybe it's a question for a perl 
>>>> list, but here goes...
>>>> 
>>>> I was given a package that calculates some statistics regarding base 
>>>> repeats in a sequence. It inherits from Bio::Root::Root presumbably to 
>>>> obtain the exception behavior bestowed by the class judging from the 
>>>> perldocs and to enforce that the argument is a PrimarySeq object. It 
>>>> has
>>>> two methods which get called thus:
>>>> 
>>>> my $polyn = QStat->polyn($seq_obj);
>>>> my $nstat = QStat->nmer_stat($seq_obj);
>>>> 
>>>> where the returned values are scalar references. The problem is that 
>>>> script quickly uses up all of the 4GB address space (processing lots 
>>>> of oligos) and crashes.
>>>> 
>>>> I have used Devel::Size to determine the size of these variables and 
>>>> get 3.8K and 7K. I have tried to undef them at the end of the loop but 
>>>> it has no effect. I commented out the calls and the problem goes away 
>>>> so the problem is associated with the QStat object.
>>>> 
>>>> The QStat class has a constructor that calls the base constructor:
>>>>     my $self = $class->SUPER::new(@args);
>>>> would this demand a destructor somewhere?
>>>> 
>>>> Does calling a method out of a class like this invoke all the class 
>>>> machinery without creating the object with new?
>>>> 
>>>> Can someone with experience deriving from Bio::Root::Root offer some 
>>>> suggestions on how to get the memory back?
>>>> 
>>>> Thanks
>>>> 
>>>> Mike
>>>> _______________________________________________
>>>> Bioperl-l mailing list
>>>> Bioperl-l at portal.open-bio.org
>>>> http://portal.open-bio.org/mailman/listinfo/bioperl-l
>>> 
>>> 
>>> -- 
>>> Jason Stajich
>>> Duke University
>>> http://www.duke.edu/~jes12
>>> 
>>> 
>>> 
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>
>
> -- Stefan Kirov, Ph.D.
> University of Tennessee/Oak Ridge National Laboratory
> 5700 bldg, PO BOX 2008 MS6164
> Oak Ridge TN 37831-6164
> USA
> tel +865 576 5120
> fax +865-576-5332
> e-mail: skirov at utk.edu
> sao at ornl.gov
>
> "And the wars go on with brainwashed pride
> For the love of God and our human rights
> And all these things are swept aside"
>
>