Re: Calling call_atexit() to clean up stuff initialized in BOOT

On Thu, Mar 12, 2009 at 01:15:46PM +0100, Gregor Goldbach wrote:
> Nicholas Clark wrote:
> 
> >>> I understand initialization of an XS module may be modified using  
> >>> BOOT.
> >>> However, there seems to be no counterpart of BOOT. How do I e.g. free
> >>> memory I allocated in BOOT?
> [...]
> >>> Or is the current practice to write an XS function that e.g. frees the
> >>> memory allocate at BOOT and call it in an END handler in the module's
> >>> Perl code?
> [perl objects]
> 
> > Yes, but perl objects are going to be cleaned up (or at least, any with
> > DESTROY methods are going to get it called) before then, so that's somewhat
> > a red herring.
> > 
> > But possibly also a solution - anything allocated in BOOT that is stashed
> > inside an object will get that object's destroy method called soon after
> > END time, with a live interpreter.
> 
> I don't create any object in my XS module, it has a pure functional
> interface. Is there anything like a destroy function instead of a
> destroy method?

You can use the SAVE* macros to trigger events at scope exit, which is useful
for resources allocated inside a given XS function, that must be disposed of
when that function exits, normally or via an exception.

But that's not going to do what you want in your BOOT example - it would free
things at the exit from the BOOT routine.

Nicholas Clark