Can delegates cause a memory leak? GC.TotalMemory(

Question

Code

using System;
internal static class Test
{
    private static void Main()
    {
        try
        {
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Start point", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            Action simpleDelegate = SimpleDelegate;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Simple delegate created", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            Action simpleCombinedDelegate = simpleDelegate + simpleDelegate + simpleDelegate;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Simple combined delegate created", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            byte[] bigManagedResource = new byte[100000000];
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Big managed resource created", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            Action bigManagedResourceDelegate = bigManagedResource.BigManagedResourceDelegate;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Big managed resource delegate created", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            Action bigCombinedDelegate = simpleCombinedDelegate + bigManagedResourceDelegate;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Big combined delegate created", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            GC.KeepAlive(bigManagedResource);
            bigManagedResource = null;
            GC.KeepAlive(bigManagedResourceDelegate);
            bigManagedResourceDelegate = null;
            GC.KeepAlive(bigCombinedDelegate);
            bigCombinedDelegate = null;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Big managed resource, big managed resource delegate and big combined delegate removed, but memory not freed", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            GC.KeepAlive(simpleCombinedDelegate);
            simpleCombinedDelegate = null;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Simple combined delegate removed, memory freed, at last", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
            GC.KeepAlive(simpleDelegate);
            simpleDelegate = null;
            Console.WriteLine("{0,10}: Simple delegate removed", GC.GetTotalMemory(true));
        }
        catch (Exception e)
        {
            Console.WriteLine(e);
        }
        Console.ReadKey(true);
    }
    private static void SimpleDelegate() { }
    private static void BigManagedResourceDelegate(this byte[] array) { }
}

Output

GC.TotalMemory(true)
    105776: Start point
    191264: Simple delegate created
    191328: Simple combined delegate created
 100191344: Big managed resource created
 100191780: Big managed resource delegate created
 100191812: Big combined delegate created
 100191780: Big managed resource, big managed resource delegate and big combined delegate removed, but memory not freed
    191668: Simple combined delegate removed, memory freed, at last
    191636: Simple delegate removed

Answer 1

Interesting case. Here is the solution:

Combining delegates is observationally pure: It looks like delegates are immutable to the outside. But internally, existing delegates are being modified. They share, under certain conditions, the same _invocationList for performance reasons (optimizing for the scenario that a few delegates are hooked up to the same event). Unfortunately, the _invocationList for the simpleCombinedDelegate references the bigMgdResDelegate which causes the memory to be kept alive.

Answer 2

I might be missing the point here, but garbage collection is by design non-deterministic. Ergo, it is up to the .NET framework to decide when it reclaims memory.

You can run GC.GetTotalMemory in a simple loop and get different figures. Perhaps no surprise as the documentation specifies that the figure returned is an approximation.