CODEWITHSUNDEEP
phpmemory-managementgarbage-collection
Sergey
Sergey

Reputation: 49798

Is there garbage collection in PHP?

I know that in PHP you don't have to free memory. Is it reached by garbage collector?

Upvotes: 65

Views: 55702

Answers (5)

luvieere
luvieere

Reputation: 37534

Yes there is, here's a nice article describing its pitfalls. In PHP > 5.3.0, there is also the gc_enable function.

Upvotes: 60

Aris
Aris

Reputation: 5055

since 5.3.0 there is garbage collection support. please check this very informative article from php.net http://php.net/manual/en/features.gc.php

Upvotes: 3

W.Ed.
W.Ed.

Reputation: 11

Since 5.3.0 you can force garbage collection by using gc_collect_cycles function.

Upvotes: 1

troelskn
troelskn

Reputation: 117615

PHP has a combination of garbage collection and reference counting. The latter is the main mode of managing memory, with the garbage collector picking up the pieces that the ref counter misses (circular references). Before 5.3, php only had ref-counting, and even in 5.3 it's the still how memory will usually be freed.

Upvotes: 11

Myles
Myles

Reputation: 21520

Yes. There is also session cleanup done by the garbage collector.

Upvotes: 3

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