package core_kernel

  1. Overview
  2. Docs
package core_kernel
Legend:
Library
Module
Module type
Parameter
Class
Class type

A manual memory manager for a set of mutable tuples. The point of Pool is to allocate a single long-lived block of memory (the pool) that lives in the OCaml major heap, and then to reuse the block, rather than continually allocating blocks on the minor heap.

A pool stores a bounded-size set of tuples, where client code is responsible for explicitly controlling when the pool allocates and frees tuples. One creates a pool of a certain capacity, which returns an empty pool that can hold that many tuples. One then uses new to allocate a tuple, which returns a Pointer.t to the tuple. One then uses get and set along with the pointer to get and set slots of the tuple. Finally, one free's a pointer to the pool's memory for a tuple, making the memory available for subsequent reuse.

In typical usage, one wraps up a pool with an abstract interface, giving nice names to the tuple slots, and only exposing mutation where desired.

All the usual problems with manual memory allocation are present with pools:

  • one can mistakenly use a pointer after it is freed
  • one can mistakenly free a pointer multiple times
  • one can forget to free a pointer

There is a debugging functor, Pool.Error_check, that is useful for building pools to help debug incorrect pointer usage.

module type S = Pool_intf.S

S is the module type for a pool.

module type Pool = Pool_intf.Pool
OCaml

Innovation. Community. Security.

GitHub Discord Twitter Peertube RSS
About
Changelog Releases Industrial Users Academic Users Why OCaml
Ecosystem
Packages Community Events OCaml Planet Jobs
Resources
Install OCaml Get Started Platform Tools Language Manual Standard Library API Books Exercises Papers OCaml Playground Logo
Policies
Carbon Footprint Governance Privacy Code of Conduct