Everything about the code you posted looks fine -- I'm not seeing any stray variables or anything and everything looks self-contained. You need to post more.

How large can the result of grab_page() be? Expect your peak memory use to be that number multiplied by 3 or so. (Even then it should not slow the script down.)

One bit that looks wasteful are these parts that cause a fairly large string copy (I think): 

$content = template 'messages' => {messages => \@messages};

{
    content => $content
}

[download]
Throw away the temporary variable and I don't think it'll fix your problem but it might slow down the memory bloat a bit: 
{ content => template( 'messages' => {messages => \@messages} ) }

[download]

In reply to Re^3: How to deal with the fact that Perl is not releasing memory by Anonymous Monk
in thread How to deal with the fact that Perl is not releasing memory by carlbolduc

Title:
Use:  <p> text here (a paragraph) </p>
and:  <code> code here </code>
to format your post, it's "PerlMonks-approved HTML":


  • Posts are HTML formatted. Put <p> </p> tags around your paragraphs. Put <code> </code> tags around your code and data!
  • Titles consisting of a single word are discouraged, and in most cases are disallowed outright.
  • Read Where should I post X? if you're not absolutely sure you're posting in the right place.
  • Please read these before you post! —
  • Posts may use any of the Perl Monks Approved HTML tags:
    a, abbr, b, big, blockquote, br, caption, center, col, colgroup, dd, del, details, div, dl, dt, em, font, h1, h2, h3, h4, h5, h6, hr, i, ins, li, ol, p, pre, readmore, small, span, spoiler, strike, strong, sub, summary, sup, table, tbody, td, tfoot, th, thead, tr, tt, u, ul, wbr
  • You may need to use entities for some characters, as follows. (Exception: Within code tags, you can put the characters literally.)
            For:     Use:
    & &amp;
    < &lt;
    > &gt;
    [ &#91;
    ] &#93;
  • Link using PerlMonks shortcuts! What shortcuts can I use for linking?
  • See Writeup Formatting Tips and other pages linked from there for more info.