[Mono-dev] garbage collection and the embedding API

[Andreas Färber]

Am 31.10.2007 um 19:20 schrieb Sebastian Good:

> We are writing an extensive set of libraries in .NET and would like  
> to expose them to a C++ application. We are using the embedding  
> API, exposing thin wrappers of MonoObject* to the C++ program. They  
> will call our functions routinely. We have a few questions:
>
> What are the lifetime rules for a MonoObject* created with  
> mono_object_new? Is there a corresponding free that needs to be  
> called? I understand that within the JIT's heaps, garbage  
> collection takes care of such issues, but when a CIL pointer  
> "escapes" into the C++ world, I  am having trouble finding  
> documentation describing what to do. I understand it is possible to  
> "pin" these MonoObject*s so they don't move around, but I assume  
> this is unnecessary until a Compacting GC is actually released.
>
> Experimentation suggests that one can indeed be careless with these  
> pointers and not suffer a memory leak, but I'd like to have a firm  
> understanding.
>
> From the discussion at http://www.mono-project.com/ 
> Mono:Runtime#Garbage_Collection it seems like  the unmanaged C++  
> heap is not scanned but it seems to me like it is. Does the GC  
> linked in with mono replace the default new() or malloc operators?

Look into Mono's gchandle functions, pinning the objects is only an  
option. As long as you own a handle to the object it shouldn't be  
collected, whether pinned or not. Since you don't know whether there  
are managed references to the object, you don't free it yourself.

Andreas