Huge memory leak each time set_menu is used

[Michael Judge]

Binary package hint: indicator-application

It seems that there is a memory leak whenever set_menu() is called to generate an indicator menu. I have written an RSS feed reading program that re-creates the menu at a timed interval. Memory usage increases by up to 3-4Mb whenever set_menu() is called. I have run the script with just set_menu() commented out, and there is no increase in memory usage.

I have python-appindicator version 0.0.19-0ubuntu4 in Lucid although I believe it applies to newer versions too, such as the one in Maverick.

Further discussion of the issue here:
http://code.google.com/p/feedindicator/issues/detail?id=10

One commenter submitted a test script which demonstrates the memory increasing over time:

# MEMORY LEAK TEST SCRIPT

#!/usr/bin/env python

import gtk, gobject, appindicator, time, glib

def refresh():
        global ind
        global menu
        print("updating")
        for menu_item in menu.get_children():
                menu.remove(menu_item)
                menu_item.destroy()
        for i in range(0,20):
                menu_item = gtk.MenuItem("item "+str(i))
                menu_item.show()
                menu.append(menu_item)
        ind.set_menu(menu)
        return 1

ind = appindicator.Indicator ("bug-test","indicator-messages-new", appindicator.CATEGORY_COMMUNICATIONS)
ind.set_status (appindicator.STATUS_ACTIVE)

menu = gtk.Menu()
ind.set_menu(menu)

glib.timeout_add_seconds(2, refresh)
gtk.main()

[Jim Bauwens (jimbauwens)]

Ops, sorry for that, press the wrong button :)

I am the commenter that submitted the test case above.
The problem effect both Lucid and Maverick, and is real annoying, as it cripples programs that need a constant updating menu.
I've tried many different things to bypass this memory leak, but even removing the app indicator doesn't free the memory.
So I would really appreciate it if someone would find a solution to this problem :)

Thanks,
Jim

[Sebastien Bacher (seb128)]

Running the example with the current version shows a very small usage increase over time, the issue seems mostly fixed, updating the title since it might still be worth checking if there is still a small leak somewhere

[Jim Bauwens (jimbauwens)]

Sorry for the late reply, but for some reason I was not subscribed to this post.

I have tested the above code on my fully updated 10.10 32 bit system, and I still have the problem.
The memory raises with 2-4 MiB every update.

So I guess that this bug is still important.

[Jim Bauwens (jimbauwens)]

I changed the title, this bug is STILL valid. I'm unable to program with indicators in python because of this.
Look at http://code.google.com/p/feedindicator/issues/detail?id=10 for the bug in real life.

[Michael Terry (mterry)]

Jim, have you seen bug 569273? For maverick, try manually unref'ing the menu after set_menu. In natty, you won't have to, as that particular bug was fixed. If you can confirm that manually unref'ing the menu fixes the leak, I'll close this as a duplicate.

So add something like:

menu.unref()

after the set_menu call.

[Jim Bauwens (jimbauwens)]

Its looks like there is no unref method in the python version ...

>>> dir(appindicator.Indicator)
['__class__', '__cmp__', '__copy__', '__deepcopy__', '__delattr__', '__dict__', '__doc__', '__format__', '__gdoc__', '__getattribute__', '__gobject_init__', '__grefcount__', '__gtype__', '__hash__', '__init__', '__module__', '__new__', '__reduce__', '__reduce_ex__', '__repr__', '__setattr__', '__sizeof__', '__str__', '__subclasshook__', 'chain', 'connect', 'connect_after', 'connect_object', 'connect_object_after', 'disconnect', 'disconnect_by_func', 'emit', 'emit_stop_by_name', 'freeze_notify', 'get_attention_icon', 'get_category', 'get_data', 'get_icon', 'get_icon_theme_path', 'get_id', 'get_label', 'get_label_guide', 'get_ordering_index', 'get_properties', 'get_property', 'get_status', 'handler_block', 'handler_block_by_func', 'handler_disconnect', 'handler_is_connected', 'handler_unblock', 'handler_unblock_by_func', 'notify', 'props', 'set_attention_icon', 'set_data', 'set_icon', 'set_icon_theme_path', 'set_label', 'set_menu', 'set_ordering_index', 'set_properties', 'set_property', 'set_status', 'stop_emission', 'thaw_notify', 'weak_ref']

There is weak_ref, but I think that is something else.
Anyway, thanks for giving the link to the other bug, I'm glad to see it is fixed! Good work :)