From 9439f04b9af6d31d8ff6fb5601d32d004946e9cc Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001 From: Antoine Pitrou Date: Tue, 21 Aug 2012 00:07:07 +0200 Subject: Issue #14954: Clarify the interaction of weak references and garbage collection. Patch by Ethan Furman. --- Doc/library/weakref.rst | 5 ++++- Misc/ACKS | 1 + 2 files changed, 5 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-) diff --git a/Doc/library/weakref.rst b/Doc/library/weakref.rst index 2ad1e56..224f442 100644 --- a/Doc/library/weakref.rst +++ b/Doc/library/weakref.rst @@ -24,7 +24,10 @@ by a weak reference. A weak reference to an object is not enough to keep the object alive: when the only remaining references to a referent are weak references, :term:`garbage collection` is free to destroy the referent and reuse its memory -for something else. A primary use for weak references is to implement caches or +for something else. However, until the object is actually destroyed the weak +reference may return the object even if there are no strong references to it. + +A primary use for weak references is to implement caches or mappings holding large objects, where it's desired that a large object not be kept alive solely because it appears in a cache or mapping. diff --git a/Misc/ACKS b/Misc/ACKS index 30505cd..7f22360 100644 --- a/Misc/ACKS +++ b/Misc/ACKS @@ -317,6 +317,7 @@ Jim Fulton Tadayoshi Funaba Gyro Funch Peter Funk +Ethan Furman Geoff Furnish Ulisses Furquim Hagen Fürstenau -- cgit v0.12