Hi there,

as there are no extentions returning objects, perhaps I am the first to encounter following problem:

I wrote an extention with functions returning objects. The problem is that these objects are not automatically destroyed in memory when no variable references them anymore.

A script like the following causes php to consume more and more memory until it terminates with "out of memory" ...

01:<?
02:   [...]
03:   while ($i++ < 10000)
04:   {
05:       $result=k2_searchrecv($a,$b,$c,$d,$e);
06:   }
07:   [...]
08:
09:?>

Even if I change line 05 to 
05:       k2_searchrecv($a,$b,$c,$d,$e);
so that the resulting object is not referenced by any variable, memory consumption grows. 

one resulting objects looks like:

object(stdClass)(9) {
  ["errorCode"]=>
  int(0)
  ["errorMessage"]=>
  string(1) "-"
  ["docStart"]=>
  int(1)
  ["docPage"]=>
  int(6)
  ["numHit"]=>
  int(6)
  ["numProc"]=>
  int(52672)
  ["numCols"]=>
  int(3)
  ["numRows"]=>
  int(6)
  ["square"]=>
  array(6) {
    [0]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(6) "401824"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(44) "Software-Entwickler/in Information Retrieval"
    }
    [1]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(6) "384327"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(18) "UNIX-Administrator"
    }
    [2]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(6) "396529"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(38) "SoftwareentwicklerInnen-architektInnen"
    }
    [3]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(6) "314928"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(27) "Anwendungsprogrammierer(in)"
    }
    [4]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(8) "10017461"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(41) "Praktikant oder studentischer Mitarbeiter"
    }
    [5]=>
    object(stdClass)(3) {
      ["SCORE"]=>
      string(6) "0.7742"
      ["VdkVgwKey"]=>
      string(6) "239921"
      ["JOB_TITLE"]=>
      string(38) "Internet/Intranet/Extranet-Consultants"
    }
  }
}
 
Could the problem be, that the object-type is stdClass and not a user-defined class ?

Here one function that builds an object as result:
------------------------------------------------------------
PHP_FUNCTION(k2_searchrecv)
{

	zval **shandle, **docstart, **docpage, **timeout, **fieldnames;
	zval **ksquare=0 ,***dummyzval=0 ;
	K2Error kerror;	
	char *dummyptr;
	char **fieldnamearray = 0;
	int i,j;
	int fieldcount;
	int withfieldnames = 0;
	int retries = 0;
	char *dummystring;

	K2SearchRecvOut recvOut = 0;
	K2SearchRecvArgRec recvNew;

	switch(ZEND_NUM_ARGS())
	{
		case 4: {
			if (zend_get_parameters_ex(4, &shandle, &docstart, &docpage, &timeout) == FAILURE)
				RETURN_LONG(-1);
			break;}

		case 5: {  
			if (zend_get_parameters_ex(5, &shandle, &docstart, &docpage, &timeout, &fieldnames) == FAILURE)
				RETURN_LONG(-1);
			withfieldnames = 1;
			dummystring = estrdup((*fieldnames)->value.str.val);	
			fieldcount = k2_internal_getNoOfStrings(dummystring);
			dummyptr = dummystring;

			fieldnamearray=(char**) emalloc (sizeof(char*) * fieldcount);
			if (fieldnamearray == NULL)
			{
				php_error(E_ERROR,"k2_searchrecv: Unable to allocate memory for 'fieldnamearray'");
				return; 
			}			

			for (j=0; j < fieldcount; j++)
			{
				fieldnamearray[j]=estrdup(dummyptr);
				dummyptr = dummyptr + strlen(dummyptr)+1;
			}			
			efree(dummystring);
			break;}

		default: WRONG_PARAM_COUNT;
	}

	convert_to_long_ex(shandle);
	convert_to_long_ex(docstart);
	convert_to_long_ex(docpage);
	convert_to_long_ex(timeout);

	K2StructInit(&recvNew);
	recvNew.docStart = (*docstart)->value.lval;
	recvNew.docPage  = (*docpage)->value.lval;
	recvNew.timeout  = (*timeout)->value.lval;

	if ((kerror=K2SearchRecv((K2Search)(*shandle)->value.lval,&recvNew,&recvOut)) != K2Success)
	{
		if (kerror == 1)
		{
			usleep(100);
			while ((kerror=K2SearchRecv((K2Search)(*shandle)->value.lval,&recvNew,&recvOut) != K2Success) &&
				(retries < MAX_RETRIES))
			{
				usleep(100);
				retries++;
			}
		}
		if (kerror != K2Success) RETURN_LONG(kerror);
	}	
	if (object_init(return_value) == FAILURE) {
		php_error(E_ERROR, "k2_searchrecv: Unable to initialize 'return_value' as object");
		return -1;
	}

	add_property_long(return_value,"errorCode", recvOut->errorCode);
	if (recvOut->errorMessage) {
		add_property_string(return_value,"errorMessage",recvOut->errorMessage,1);
	} else { add_property_string(return_value,"errorMessage","-",1); } 
	add_property_long(return_value,"docStart",recvOut->docStart);
	add_property_long(return_value,"docPage",recvOut->docPage);
	add_property_long(return_value,"numHit",recvOut->numHit);
	add_property_long(return_value,"numProc",recvOut->numProc);
	if (recvOut->square) 
	{
		add_property_long(return_value,"numCols",recvOut->square->numCols);
		add_property_long(return_value,"numRows",recvOut->square->numRows);
		
		ksquare = (zval **) emalloc (sizeof(zval*));
		dummyzval = (zval ***) emalloc(sizeof(zval**));
		*dummyzval = (zval *) emalloc(sizeof(zval *));
	
		*ksquare = (zval*) emalloc (sizeof(zval));
		if ( array_init(*ksquare) == FAILURE ) {
			php_error(E_ERROR,"k2_searchrecv: Unable to initialize '*ksquare' as object");
			return;
		}

		dummyptr = (char*) recvOut->square->pData;
		for(i=0; i < recvOut->square->numRows; i++)
		{
			// create one element of the result list including all specified fields
			*dummyzval=(zval**) emalloc(sizeof(zval*));
			**dummyzval= (zval*) emalloc(sizeof(zval));
			if (**dummyzval == NULL) {
				php_error(E_ERROR, "k2_searchrecv: Unable to allocate memory for '**dummyzval'");
			}

			if (withfieldnames == 0) { 
				if (array_init(**dummyzval) == FAILURE) {
					php_error(E_ERROR, "k2_searchrecv: Unable to initialize '**dummyzval' as array");
					return;
				} 
			}
			else { 
				if (object_init(**dummyzval) == FAILURE) {
					php_error(E_ERROR, "k2_searchrecv: Unable to initialize '**dummyzval' as object");
					return; 
				}
			}
			for(j=0; j < recvOut->square->numCols; j++)
			{
				if (withfieldnames == 0) { add_next_index_string(**dummyzval,dummyptr,1);}
					else {add_property_string(**dummyzval,fieldnamearray[j],dummyptr,1);}
				// printf("%d: %p[%d] -> %s \n",i,**dummyzval,j,dummyptr);
				dummyptr = dummyptr + strlen(dummyptr) + 1; //printf("j=%d - %s\n",j,dummyptr);
			}
			// append 
			zend_hash_next_index_insert((*ksquare)->value.ht,*dummyzval,sizeof(zval*),NULL);

		}
		// append all the results in ksquare to the return structure
		zend_hash_add(return_value->value.obj.properties,"square",strlen("square")+1, (void*) ksquare,sizeof (zval*),NULL); 
	} else {
		add_property_long(return_value,"numCols",0);
		add_property_long(return_value,"numRows",0);
	}

	//clean up
	K2SearchRecvFree(recvOut);
	if (withfieldnames) {
		for (i=0; i < fieldcount; i++)
			efree(fieldnamearray[i]);
		efree(fieldnamearray);
	}
}
------------------------------------------------------------

TIA
   CHristian