Python garbage collection can be that slow?

Question

I have a problem with my python application, and I think it\'s related to the python garbage collection, even if I\'m not sure...

The problem is that my application

Answer 1

This is known garbage collector issue in Python 2.6 causing quadratic time for garbage collection when many objects are being allocated without deallocating any of them ie. population of large list.
There are two simple solutions:

1. either disable garbage collection before populating large lists and enable it afterwards

   l = []
   gc.disable()
   for x in xrange(10**6):
     l.append(x)
   gc.enable()
   

2. or update to Python 2.7, where the issue has been solved

I prefer the second solution, but it's not always an option;)