11.6. 弱引用

Python 自动进行内存管理（对大多数的对象进行引用计数和垃圾回收—— _garbage collection_ ——以循环利用）在最后一个引用消失后，内存会很快释放。 这个工作方式对大多数应用程序工作良好，但是偶尔会需要跟踪对象来做一些事。不幸的是，仅仅为跟踪它们创建引用也会使其长期存在。 weakref 模块提供了不用创建引用的跟踪对象工具，一旦对象不再存在，它自动从弱引用表上删除并触发回调。典型的应用包括捕获难以构造的对象: ~~~ >>> import weakref, gc >>> class A: ... def __init__(self, value): ... self.value = value ... def __repr__(self): ... return str(self.value) ... >>> a = A(10) # create a reference >>> d = weakref.WeakValueDictionary() >>> d['primary'] = a # does not create a reference >>> d['primary'] # fetch the object if it is still alive 10 >>> del a # remove the one reference >>> gc.collect() # run garbage collection right away 0 >>> d['primary'] # entry was automatically removed Traceback (most recent call last): File "", line 1, in d['primary'] # entry was automatically removed File "C:/python33/lib/weakref.py", line 46, in __getitem__ o = self.data[key]() KeyError: 'primary' ~~~