Description: ------------ instantiating new parsers repeatedly leaks memory, even if the parsers are unset Test script: --------------- require_once 'XML/HTMLSax3.php'; function parse($doc) { static $parser; if (!isset($parser)) $parser = new XML_HTMLSax3(); $parser->parse($doc); } function parse2($doc) { $parser = new XML_HTMLSax3(); $parser->parse($doc); unset($parser); } $s = "blah"; $start_mem = memory_get_usage(true); for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) parse($s); $mem_diff = memory_get_usage(true) - $start_mem; print "1000 iterations with static parser, memory diff " . (memory_get_usage(true) - $start_mem) . "\n"; $start_mem = memory_get_usage(true); for ($i = 0; $i < 1000; $i++) parse2($s); $mem_diff = memory_get_usage(true) - $start_mem; print "1000 iterations with new parser each time, memory diff " . (memory_get_usage(true) - $start_mem) . "\n"; Expected result: ---------------- 1000 iterations with static parser, memory diff 0 1000 iterations with new parser each time, memory diff 0 Actual result: -------------- 1000 iterations with static parser, memory diff 0 1000 iterations with new parser each time, memory diff 4456448

my coworker discovered that if you were make a destructor which unsets the members $state_parser->handler_default and $parser->state_parser, this would fix the problem (in php5)

Can you retry this with php 5.2.6?

Ok, I'm seeing the same thing with php 5.2.4; but it sounds to me like http://www.exponetic.com/blog/blog/2004/09/13/php-5-garbage-collection/ ; which is a bit of a pain to fix properly (and I'm keen to play wait-and-see for 5.3+).