Program to eat memory and exit

eat_memory.py

import os
import psutil

PROCESS = psutil.Process(os.getpid())
MEGA = 10 ** 6
MEGA_STR = ' ' * MEGA

def pmem():
    #tot, avail, percent, used, free = psutil.virtual_memory()
    svmem = psutil.virtual_memory()
    
    tot, avail, used, free = svmem.total / MEGA, svmem.available / MEGA, svmem.used / MEGA, svmem.free / MEGA
    proc = PROCESS.get_memory_info()[1] / MEGA
    print('process = %s total = %s avail = %s used = %s free = %s percent = %s'
          % (proc, tot, avail, used, free, svmem.percent))

def alloc_max_array():
    i = 0
    ar = []
    while True:
        try:
            #ar.append(MEGA_STR)  # no copy if reusing the same string!
            ar.append(MEGA_STR + str(i))
        except MemoryError:
            break
        i += 1
    max_i = i - 1
    print 'maximum array allocation:', max_i
    pmem()

def alloc_max_str():
    i = 0
    while True:
        try:
            a = ' ' * (i * 10 * MEGA)
            del a
        except MemoryError:
            break
        i += 1
    max_i = i - 1
    _ = ' ' * (max_i * 10 * MEGA)
    print 'maximum string allocation', max_i
    pmem()

pmem()
alloc_max_str()
alloc_max_array()