How does Haskell manage its memory?
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So, we know that for most languages, throughout a program's execution:
- Global variables are stored in static memory.
- Local variables are stored in the stack memory.
- Arbitrarily-changing variables are stored in the heap.
What about Haskell? All I know is that it is lazy. How does that translate into this context?
haskell memory-management functional-programming ghc
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
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up vote
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So, we know that for most languages, throughout a program's execution:
- Global variables are stored in static memory.
- Local variables are stored in the stack memory.
- Arbitrarily-changing variables are stored in the heap.
What about Haskell? All I know is that it is lazy. How does that translate into this context?
haskell memory-management functional-programming ghc
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
3
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
2
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"
– chi
2 days ago
2
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago
add a comment |
up vote
1
down vote
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up vote
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down vote
favorite
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1
So, we know that for most languages, throughout a program's execution:
- Global variables are stored in static memory.
- Local variables are stored in the stack memory.
- Arbitrarily-changing variables are stored in the heap.
What about Haskell? All I know is that it is lazy. How does that translate into this context?
haskell memory-management functional-programming ghc
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
So, we know that for most languages, throughout a program's execution:
- Global variables are stored in static memory.
- Local variables are stored in the stack memory.
- Arbitrarily-changing variables are stored in the heap.
What about Haskell? All I know is that it is lazy. How does that translate into this context?
haskell memory-management functional-programming ghc
haskell memory-management functional-programming ghc
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
edited 12 hours ago
Benjamin Hodgson♦
26.2k1172121
26.2k1172121
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
asked 2 days ago
thlik
93
93
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
New contributor
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
thlik is a new contributor to this site. Take care in asking for clarification, commenting, and answering.
Check out our Code of Conduct.
5
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
3
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
2
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"
– chi
2 days ago
2
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago
add a comment |
5
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
3
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
2
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"
– chi
2 days ago
2
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago
5
5
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
3
3
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
2
2
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.
sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"– chi
2 days ago
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.
sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"– chi
2 days ago
2
2
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago
add a comment |
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5
Well a lot of (high-level) languages keep it open how memory management is implemented. But for GHC, this wiki page might be a start.
– Willem Van Onsem
2 days ago
3
As a zeroth-order approximation you'd have to say that everything is on the heap in Haskell, but more practically we can assume that the compiler will decide to put any variable whereever it's deemed best for performance. Quite often it will also eliminate variables entirely, or introduce new ones. All that the language specifies is that you'll get the right results in the end...
– leftaroundabout
2 days ago
2
Don't forget that static/stack/heap memory does not really exist on its own. At the lower level, we only have RAM (including virtual memory). Then the OS may reserve a portion of the address space for the "stack", allow processes to request more stack (e.g.
sbrk) or heap (mmap), and pre-allocating a static portion when the executable is loaded. The the language runtime system can, on top of this, use garbage collection. Some variants of GC further divide the memory into generations or from-space/to-space (for copying GCs). These are further abstractions, usually implemented in the "heap"– chi
2 days ago
2
Haskell doesn't say anything about memory management. A particular implementation of Haskell makes those decisions.
– chepner
2 days ago