Hello Monks,
What happens to references when you "delete" them?
Consider this example:
my $array_ref = [];
for(1 ... 10) {
    my $hash_ref = { foo => foo, bar => bar };
    push(@{$array_ref}, $hash_ref);
}

$array_ref = [];

[download]
$array_ref does actually is an empty array reference but what happens to all the hash_refs? would I need to loop through the hash ref and actually set all the hash refs to {} to truly delete this array ref?

Also if those hash refs contained array refs of hash refs themselves would i need to recurse thru the whole tree and delete them that way? My question is what is the easiest way to delete references without causing a memory leak.

My concern is a persistent script using mod_perl or a daemon of some sort, experience problems if these stayed in memory without getting cleaned up.

Should I just not use references and actually use "real" array's and hashes so I can ensure that memory leaks do not happen? Sorry about the long winded post.

In reply to deleteing references by jshin

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