Ok, then I offer this: here is XS code for two functions, conceal() and reveal(). (I'm not attached to the names, I just wanted a pair of names that vaguely explained their purpose.) 
int
conceal(int var)
  CODE:
    SvREFCNT_inc((SV *) var);
    RETVAL = var;
  OUTPUT:
    RETVAL

SV *
reveal(char *str_or_addr)
  CODE:
    char *hex;
    int addr = (hex = rindex(str_or_addr, 'x')) ?
      strtol(++hex, NULL, 16) :
      atoi(str_or_addr);
    RETVAL = newRV((SV *) addr);
    SvREFCNT_dec((SV *) addr);
  OUTPUT:
    RETVAL

[download]
How's that? Here's a sample use of the code: 
use Devel::Reference;

my $x = [1,2,3];
my $addr = Devel::Reference::conceal($x);

# the refcount of [1,2,3] is now 2

undef $x;

# the refcount of [1,2,3] is now 1

my $y = Devel::Reference::reveal($addr);

# the refcount of [1,2,3] REMAINS at 1

print "@$y\n";  # "1 2 3"

[download]
As for all that other satellite data, that could be provided, but this is the crux of the functionality. All it's really lacking right now is sanity checking, to make sure the address is recoverable when in reveal().
_____________________________________________________
Jeff japhy Pinyan, P.L., P.M., P.O.D, X.S.: Perl, regex, and perl hacker
How can we ever be the sold short or the cheated, we who for every service have long ago been overpaid? ~~ Meister Eckhart

In reply to Re^13: Techniques On Saving Memory by japhy
in thread Techniques On Saving Memory by Limbic~Region

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