I have a class that includes an iterator method for outputing in a stream-like fashion. (tye's response in this thread shows pretty much how the code is constructed Re: Streaming to Handles (iterator)) Since this I've slightly amended the code to include some other "features". It all works beautifully although I've noticed it now leaks memory. I believe I've located the source of the memory leak although am not sure how to retain the features while effectively removing the memory leak. The below code highlights the problem.

I push an array reference to the $self->{files} array by using the below code:

my @array = ();
push (@array, $rel_path);
## in my code more than one thing is pushed to @array.
push (@{$self->{files}}, \@array);
[download]

(I'm sure that's where the problem lies!)

In the "next" iterator method I then "return" these references from the $self->{files} array:

sub next {
    my( $self )= @_;

    while( 1 ) {
        if(  @{ $self->{files} }  ) {
            my $file = shift @{ $self->{files} };   ## HERE!
            if(  -d $file  ) {
                push @{ $self->{dirs} }, $file;
            }
            return $file;
        }
        if(  ! @{ $self->{dirs} }  ) {
            return;
        }
        my $dir= shift @{ $self->{dirs} };
        if(  opendir( DIR, $dir )  ) {
            $self->{files}= [
                map {
                    File::Spec->catfile( $dir, $_ );
                } File::Spec->no_upwards( readdir(DIR) )
            ];
            closedir DIR;
        } else {
            warn "opendir failed, $dir: $!\n";
        }
    }
}
[download]

... which I then dereference in my calling script:

my $file;
while(  $file = $f->next()  ) {
    print "@{$_}\n";
}
[download]

Now I can see this method of pushing array references is leaving a reference count against the @array array ... and hence @array is never destroyed. This in time means RAM gets munched and for a long running script eventuates in my computer dying. But I need the feature of pushing a set of values (possbily as a array unless there is an alternative) into the $self->{files} array which I can then recall together as set

Is there a way to achieve this without leaving a reference count against @array (and hence removing the memory leak) ?

Does all of that make sense?

UPDATE: After writing this I layed down in bed and a thought suddenly struck me - Instead of making an @array to reference why not just push an anonymous array?

push (@{$self->{output}}, [$rel_path, $var1, $var2]);
[download]

I'll have to test this tomorrow but if anyone wishes to comment then please do so. :-)

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