The hunt for Pythons memory leaks.py

import gc
import sys

sm = sys.modules.copy()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 4075

import httplib
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 7064

sys.modules.pop('httplib')
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 7064

del httplib
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 6747

sys.modules = sm
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 6747

globals().clear()
import gc
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 6747

locals().clear()
import gc
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects()) # 6747

g = {}
exec 'import httplib' in g
del g
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects())  # back to 7064

from types import ModuleType
import sys
print len(gc.get_objects())  # 7064
sys.modules['httplib'] = ModuleType('httplib')
print len(gc.get_objects())  # 7066

for key in sys.modules.keys():
    del sys.modules[key]
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects())  # 7064
    
import httplib
for attr in dir(httplib):
    setattr(httplib, attr, None)
gc.collect()
print len(gc.get_objects())  # 6749