Why does memory leak after large file download in Ruby?



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2















I have some Ruby that is downloading a large XML file (~ 380MB).



I'm using on_body to download it in chunks:



to = File.open('/path', 'wb')

http = HTTPI::Request.new(options)
http.url = uri
http.on_body to.write(chunk)

HTTPI.get(http, :net_http)

to.close


on_body, according to its documentation (https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/httpi/HTTPI/Request#on_body-instance_method) will read the response in chunks, to prevent filling up memory.



This seems to work, in practice my memory usage jumps up about ~178 MB after downloading the file, so some garbage collection appears to happen while the file is being streamed, or else I would expect it to jump by the full file size.



However, afterwords, that 178MB just hangs around forever.



I've narrowed it down to being due to the file download. If I read the same XML file from disk, memory has only increased by about 4MB after I'm finished processing the file.










share|improve this question
























  • because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:09











  • @engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:17












  • For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:24











  • Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:25






  • 1





    Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

    – steenslag
    Nov 15 '18 at 19:56

















2















I have some Ruby that is downloading a large XML file (~ 380MB).



I'm using on_body to download it in chunks:



to = File.open('/path', 'wb')

http = HTTPI::Request.new(options)
http.url = uri
http.on_body to.write(chunk)

HTTPI.get(http, :net_http)

to.close


on_body, according to its documentation (https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/httpi/HTTPI/Request#on_body-instance_method) will read the response in chunks, to prevent filling up memory.



This seems to work, in practice my memory usage jumps up about ~178 MB after downloading the file, so some garbage collection appears to happen while the file is being streamed, or else I would expect it to jump by the full file size.



However, afterwords, that 178MB just hangs around forever.



I've narrowed it down to being due to the file download. If I read the same XML file from disk, memory has only increased by about 4MB after I'm finished processing the file.










share|improve this question
























  • because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:09











  • @engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:17












  • For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:24











  • Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:25






  • 1





    Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

    – steenslag
    Nov 15 '18 at 19:56













2












2








2


1






I have some Ruby that is downloading a large XML file (~ 380MB).



I'm using on_body to download it in chunks:



to = File.open('/path', 'wb')

http = HTTPI::Request.new(options)
http.url = uri
http.on_body to.write(chunk)

HTTPI.get(http, :net_http)

to.close


on_body, according to its documentation (https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/httpi/HTTPI/Request#on_body-instance_method) will read the response in chunks, to prevent filling up memory.



This seems to work, in practice my memory usage jumps up about ~178 MB after downloading the file, so some garbage collection appears to happen while the file is being streamed, or else I would expect it to jump by the full file size.



However, afterwords, that 178MB just hangs around forever.



I've narrowed it down to being due to the file download. If I read the same XML file from disk, memory has only increased by about 4MB after I'm finished processing the file.










share|improve this question
















I have some Ruby that is downloading a large XML file (~ 380MB).



I'm using on_body to download it in chunks:



to = File.open('/path', 'wb')

http = HTTPI::Request.new(options)
http.url = uri
http.on_body to.write(chunk)

HTTPI.get(http, :net_http)

to.close


on_body, according to its documentation (https://www.rubydoc.info/gems/httpi/HTTPI/Request#on_body-instance_method) will read the response in chunks, to prevent filling up memory.



This seems to work, in practice my memory usage jumps up about ~178 MB after downloading the file, so some garbage collection appears to happen while the file is being streamed, or else I would expect it to jump by the full file size.



However, afterwords, that 178MB just hangs around forever.



I've narrowed it down to being due to the file download. If I read the same XML file from disk, memory has only increased by about 4MB after I'm finished processing the file.







ruby performance memory memory-leaks






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share|improve this question













share|improve this question




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edited Nov 15 '18 at 18:31







Zachary Wright

















asked Nov 15 '18 at 16:47









Zachary WrightZachary Wright

15.3k93547




15.3k93547












  • because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:09











  • @engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:17












  • For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:24











  • Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:25






  • 1





    Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

    – steenslag
    Nov 15 '18 at 19:56

















  • because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:09











  • @engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:17












  • For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

    – Zachary Wright
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:24











  • Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

    – engineersmnky
    Nov 15 '18 at 17:25






  • 1





    Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

    – steenslag
    Nov 15 '18 at 19:56
















because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

– engineersmnky
Nov 15 '18 at 17:09





because you didn't close the file ??? try adding to.close

– engineersmnky
Nov 15 '18 at 17:09













@engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

– Zachary Wright
Nov 15 '18 at 17:17






@engineersmnky I should have included that in the code sample - I do close it. (I've added it to the sample now)

– Zachary Wright
Nov 15 '18 at 17:17














For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

– Zachary Wright
Nov 15 '18 at 17:24





For what it's worth, closing vs not closing doesn't have any impact on the memory usage.

– Zachary Wright
Nov 15 '18 at 17:24













Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

– engineersmnky
Nov 15 '18 at 17:25





Are you sure it hangs around forever maybe GC just hasn't gotten to it yet

– engineersmnky
Nov 15 '18 at 17:25




1




1





Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

– steenslag
Nov 15 '18 at 19:56





Garbage collection frees memory for re-use by Ruby. Releasing memory to the OS is something else. sitepoint.com/ruby-uses-memory explains it better than I can.

– steenslag
Nov 15 '18 at 19:56












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