QUERY · ISSUE

More flexible memory analysis with `micropython.mem_info()`

openby AmirHmZzopened 2022-08-12updated 2022-08-12

enhancement

I think it would be a good idea to make micropython.mem_info(1) yields table of heap utilisation in a specific format in a streaming manner. It could be used to analyise and profile memory on another device easily. This idea also applies to micropython.mem_info() as it just prints some stuff and not returning anything.

CANDIDATE · ISSUE

mem_info reports impossible values

openby osresearchopened 2020-02-15updated 2020-02-16

Tracing m_malloc() and m_free() calls, it looks like the free rarely gets called, so the reported memory usage keeps climbing and current_bytes_allocated is significantly larger (34KB) than the heap + stack (29KB) after a while:

>>> micropython.mem_info()
mem: total=43806, current=33642, peak=34475
stack: 428 out of 5512
GC: total: 24000, used: 7888, free: 16112
 No. of 1-blocks: 184, 2-blocks: 26, max blk sz: 18, max free sz: 373

This might be a bug in my port; I'm using the minimal gc_collect() that has a comment about it "may function incorrectly".

Assessment

Q Qwen · high

Both items concern micropython.mem_info() and memory analysis, but they address fundamentally different aspects. Issue #9043 is a feature request to enhance mem_info() to return structured data in a streaming format for remote profiling. Issue #5650 is a bug report about mem_info() reporting impossible values (current allocation exceeding total heap), likely due to a port-specific gc_collect() implementation issue. The candidate does not resolve the feature request in the query; it addresses a separate correctness problem with the existing implementation.

Suggested action

Keep both issues open. #9043 is a feature request for enhanced functionality. #5650 is a bug report about incorrect memory accounting that needs investigation and potential fix in the GC/malloc implementation.

More flexible memory analysis with `micropython.mem_info()`

mem_info reports impossible values

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