Re: [Boost-build] [Boost][build][v2 head] Memory footprint

From: Alex Besogonov (cyberax_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-09-05 03:51:01

Rene Rivera wrote:
>> left bjam with a 1.7Gb memory footprint, leaving very little memory  
>> for the build phase on this 2Gb machine.
> Yea, it's a painful effect of the string handling of bjam :-( There 
> aren't that many options for fixing it short of a rewrite to C++ which 
> someone, wish I could remember his name now, is working on.
That's me :) My C++ port is Almost Ready (tm)

There's another possible solution, we can use Boehm-Demers-Weiser 
conservative GC (http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/). I tried 
to use it with BJam some time ago with good results but forgot to write 
about it here.

I've attached my patch to lists.c which limits the size of freelist 
cache so GC can collect unused strings.

-- 
With respect,
             Alex Besogonov (cyberax_at_[hidden])

Index: lists.c
===================================================================
RCS file: /cvsroot/boost/boost/tools/jam/src/lists.c,v
retrieving revision 1.8
diff -r1.8 lists.c
30a31,35
> #ifdef USE_BOEHM_GC
> static int list_size = 0; /* number of free lists in the cache */
> #define MAX_CACHE_SIZE 100
> #endif
> 
80a86,88
> #ifdef USE_BOEHM_GC
> 	    list_size--;
> #endif
227c235,239
< 	if( head )
---
> 	if( head 
> #ifdef USE_BOEHM_GC
> 		&& list_size<MAX_CACHE_SIZE 
> #endif		
> 		)
230a243,245
> #ifdef USE_BOEHM_GC
> 	    list_size++;
> #endif
231a247
>