Python - Working around memory leaks

Question

I have a Python program that runs a series of experiments, with no data intended to be stored from one test to another. My code contains a memory leak which I am completely

Answer 1

I would simply refactor the experiments into individual functions (if not like that already) then accept an experiment number from the command line which calls the single experiment function.

The just bodgy up a shell script as follows:

#!/bin/bash

for expnum in 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 ; do
    python youProgram ${expnum} otherParams
done

That way, you can leave most of your code as-is and this will clear out any memory leaks you think you have in between each experiment.

Of course, the best solution is always to find and fix the root cause of a problem but, as you've already stated, that's not an option for you.

Although it's hard to imagine a memory leak in Python, I'll take your word on that one - you may want to at least consider the possibility that you're mistaken there, however. Consider raising that in a separate question, something that we can work on at low priority (as opposed to this quick-fix version).

Update: Making community wiki since the question has changed somewhat from the original. I'd delete the answer but for the fact I still think it's useful - you could do the same to your experiment runner as I proposed the bash script for, you just need to ensure that the experiments are separate processes so that memory leaks dont occur (if the memory leaks are in the runner, you're going to have to do root cause analysis and fix the bug properly).