I read some node (sorry, no URL) earlier today in which, it stated that when you undef a variable, it does free up space, but it frees it to perl, not to the OS. This means that in the snippet:

my $foo = "I drank too much Dew.";
undef $foo;

my $bar = "I drank too much Dew.";
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Perl will allocate to $bar the memory that $foo took up prior to $foo's undef'ing (or Moral Equivalent).

redmist
Silicon Cowboy
redmist::webnode

OK, I am a silly goober. Apparently free does NOT give memory back to the OS. It just throws it back n the heap. There goes *that* idea.