I've seen a few discussions on the topic but it seems that things change over time so I was wondering if someone has an "ultimate" answer :)

I am trying to embed perl in a C application. I used sample embedding functions from Advanced Perl Programming book and they do work, however there is a significant memory "leak" when using them as shown in the book.

P.S. Well, I found the issue - it appears that book example forgets the final PUTBACK (used after all return results are popped off the stack). Fortunately, there is a better guide to embedding perl which I found here: http://docs.activestate.com/activeperl/5.10/lib/pods/perlcall.html , if anyone is interested.