<ppdoc>
<copyright>
Copyright (c) 2001 by Addison Wesley Longman, Inc. This material may
be distributed only subject to the terms and conditions set forth in
the Open Publication License, v1.0 or later (the latest version is
presently available at http://www.opencontent.org/openpub/).
<p/>
Distribution of substantively modified versions of this document is
prohibited without the explicit permission of the copyright holder.
<p/>
Distribution of the work or derivative of the work in any standard
(paper) book form is prohibited unless prior permission is obtained
from the copyright holder.
</copyright>
<class name="GC" type="module" ref="xref-000001">
<p/>
  The <modulename>GC</modulename> module provides an interface to Ruby's mark and sweep garbage
  collection mechanism.  
  Some of the underlying methods are also
  available via the <modulename>ObjectSpace</modulename> module, described 
  beginning on page 430.
<p/>
  <methods type="class">
        <method name="disable" ref="disable">
      <callseq>
        GC.disable <returns><const>true</const> or <const>false</const></returns>
      </callseq>
      <desc>
<p/>
      Disables garbage collection, returning <const>true</const> if garbage
      collection was already disabled.
<p/>
<codefragment>
<fullcode><![CDATA[        GC.disable
        GC.disable
]]></fullcode><rubycode>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.disable</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>false</tt></td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.disable</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>true</tt></td>
</tr>
</rubycode>
<p/>
</codefragment>
<p/>
      </desc>
    </method>
<p/>
        <method name="enable" ref="enable">
      <callseq>
        GC.enable <returns><const>true</const> or <const>false</const></returns>
      </callseq>
      <desc>
<p/>
      Enables garbage collection, returning <const>true</const> if garbage
      collection was disabled.
<p/>
<codefragment>
<fullcode><![CDATA[        GC.disable
        GC.enable
        GC.enable
]]></fullcode><rubycode>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.disable</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>false</tt></td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.enable</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>true</tt></td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.enable</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>false</tt></td>
</tr>
</rubycode>
<p/>
</codefragment>
<p/>
      </desc>
    </method>
<p/>
        <method name="start" ref="start">
      <callseq>
        GC.start <returns><tt>nil</tt></returns>
      </callseq>
      <desc>
<p/>
      Initiates garbage collection, unless manually disabled.
<p/>
<codefragment>
<fullcode><![CDATA[        GC.start
]]></fullcode><rubycode>
<tr>
  <td><tt>GC.start</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>nil</tt></td>
</tr>
</rubycode>
<p/>
</codefragment>
<p/>
      </desc>
    </method>
<p/>
  </methods>
<p/>
  <methods type="instance">
        <method name="garbage_collect" ref="garbage_collect">
      <callseq>
        garbage_collect <returns><tt>nil</tt></returns>
      </callseq>
      <desc>
<p/>
      Equivalent to <mmm><file>gc</file><front>GC</front><back>start</back><mref>start</mref></mmm>.
<p/>
<codefragment>
<fullcode><![CDATA[        include GC
        garbage_collect
]]></fullcode><rubycode>
<tr>
<td colspan="3"><tt>include<nbsp/>GC</tt></td>
</tr>
<tr>
  <td><tt>garbage_collect</tt></td>
  <td>&#187;</td>
  <td><tt>nil</tt></td>
</tr>
</rubycode>
<p/>
</codefragment>
<p/>
      </desc>
    </method>
<p/>
  </methods>
<p/>
</class>
</ppdoc>
