18 The SYSTEM Package

mark-and-sweep

Function

Summary

Garbage collects a specified generation.

Package

system

Signature

mark-and-sweep gen-number => bytes

Arguments

gen-number: 0 for the most recent generation, 1 for the most recent two generations, and so on up to a maximum (usually 3). Numbers outside this range signal an error.

Values

bytes: The number of bytes allocated in that generation.

Description

mark-and-sweep is used to garbage-collect a specified generation of storage (and all lower generations). A call to this function forces the garbage collector to scan the specified generations. This can be of use in obtaining consistent timings of programs that require memory allocation. Alternatively, performance can sometimes be improved by forcing a garbage collection, when it is known that little memory has been allocated since a previous collection, rather than waiting for a later, more extensive collection. For example, the function could be called outside a loop that allocates a small amount of memory.

It is specially helpful to make and sweep generation 2 when large, long-lived data structures become garbage, because by default it is never marked and swept. The higher the generation number the more time themark-and-sweep takes, but also the more space recovered.

Examples

(mark-and-sweep 0)  ; collect most recent generation (mark-and-sweep 3)  ; collect all generations

See also

avoid-gc get-gc-parameters gc-if-needed normal-gc set-gc-parameters without-interrupts with-heavy-allocation