It might help if you could be more specific about what the issue is --
if they are out of scope why does it matter whether the finalizers
run?
Generically two approaches I can think of:
you keep track of whenit is safe to fully run your finalizers and have
your finalizers put the objects on a linked list if it isn't safe to
run the finalizer now and clear the list each time you make a new one
keep track of your objects with a weak list andturn them into strong
references before your calls, then drop the list after.
I'm pretty sure we don't have a mechanism for temporarily suspending
running the finalizers but it is probably fairly easy to add if that
is the only option.
I might be able to think of other options with more details on the
issue.
Best,
luke
On Tue, 12 Feb 2013, Thomas Lumley wrote:
Is there some way to prevent finalizers running during a section of code?
I have a package that includes R objects linked to database tables. To
maintain the call-by-value semantics, tables are copied rather than
modified, and the extra tables are removed by finalizers during garbage
collection.
However, if the garbage collection occurs in the middle of processing
another SQL query (which is relatively likely, since that's where the
memory allocations are) there are problems with the database interface.
Since the guarantees for the finalizer are "at most once, not before the
object is out of scope" it seems harmless to be able to prevent finalizers
from running during a particular code block, but I can't see any way to do
it.
Suggestions?
-thomas
--
Luke Tierney
Chair, Statistics and Actuarial Science
Ralph E. Wareham Professor of Mathematical Sciences
University of Iowa Phone: 319-335-3386
Department of Statistics and Fax: 319-335-3017
Actuarial Science
241 Schaeffer Hall email: luke-tier...@uiowa.edu
Iowa City, IA 52242 WWW: http://www.stat.uiowa.edu
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