i've written a script that generates random german poems from a massive hash/ref-structure imported via Storable. To save the startup-time and lots of mem i converted the script to a mod_perl handler. it compiles and runs fine and initially it shares the complete mem (440 mb) of the apache process but after some runs the size of shared mem rapidly decreases. since i only read from the hash i think the mem gets dirty because of autovivification in the hash. i went over the code and added some exists() but it doesnt seem to change anything. after running for a while there is almost no shared mem left and the mem consumption gets crazy. my questions:
1. it would be very nice for me to declare the whole structure (multi-level/hashs/arrays/refs) read-only but readonly-pragma only supports scalars and i have no idea how to get constants to work with Storable. Anyone got an idea?
2. is there an autoviv of arrays. eg if i have an array with 4 elements and read-access the fifth, is the array changed?
3. is there a write in "foreach $elem (@{$ref})" to $ref?
4. if you are very nice and have absolutely nothing to do, would you throw a look at my source-code (www.versquelle.de, the page is in german but there is a quite understandable link to the source-code in the center of the page) and leave me a mail at info@versquelle.de.
help is very much appreciated.

In reply to mod_perl shared mem and autoviv by LetoX

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