GNU libc allocator is derived from Doug Lea malloc, a proven general-purpose allocator. Go on, unpack and read the source and the comments (I'm looking at glibc-2.17/malloc/malloc.c)

True, trims do not happen much because small data gets allocated from fastbins. But try to malloc a lot of somewhat larger blocks (couple hundred bytes each), and free them all. You shall see a shrink.

Update: from said malloc.c: 

    DEFAULT_TRIM_THRESHOLD     128 * 1024
    DEFAULT_TOP_PAD            0
    DEFAULT_MMAP_THRESHOLD     128 * 1024
    DEFAULT_MMAP_MAX           65536

[download]
And please don't say "never". E.g. freeing a block 64k to 128k in size triggers fastbin consolidation. If your program has performed a work cycle, freeing all temps, then it is quite possible a trim takes place. It depends on usage.

In reply to Re^3: Perl and memory usage. Can it be released? by oiskuu
in thread Perl and memory usage. Can it be released? by sherab

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