Region-Based Memory Management

Abstract

This paper describes a memory management discipline for programs that perform dynamic memory allocation and de-allocation. At runtime, all values are put into regions. The store consists of a stack of regions. All points of region allocation and de-allocation are inferred automatically, using a type and effect based program analysis. The scheme does not assume the presence of a garbage collector. The scheme was first presented in 1994 (M. Tofte and J.-P. Talpin, in "Proceedings of the 21st ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages," pp. 188-201); subsequently, it has been tested in The ML Kit with Regions, a region-based, garbage-collection free implementation of the Standard ML Core language, which includes recursive datatypes, higher-order functions and updatable references L. Birkedal, M. Tofte, and M. Vejlstrup, (1996), in "Proceedings of the 23rd ACM SIGPLAN-SIGACT Symposium on Principles of Programming Languages," pp. 171-183. This paper defines a region-based dynamic semantics for a skeletal programming language extracted from Standard ML. We present the inference system which specifies where regions can be allocated and de-allocated and a detailed proof that the system is sound with respect to a standard semantics. We conclude by giving some advice on how to write programs that run well on a stack of regions, based on practical experience with the ML Kit. © 1997 Academic Press.