How to stop Python Program from continually increasing memory usage?

Question

I created a little program to measure my 4g data consumption and it's working pretty well... Except for one part.

After running for a whole day, I heard my computer making sounds I've never heard so when I went to my Task Manager and was surprisingly welcomed with a Python program using 3GB of RAM. I stopped the program and re-ran it. It started at 20 Mb of RAM consumed and kept getting higher and higher.

I tried using the garbage collector to (free) the value returned each time but that didn't help since the return value is a float. I did try to cast it to int without success.

import time
import threading
from tkinter import *
import psutil
import socket
import gc

def running_processes():
    for proc in psutil.process_iter():
        try:
            # Get process name & pid from process object.
            processName = proc.name()
            processID = proc.pid
            print(processName , ' ::: ', processID)
        except (psutil.NoSuchProcess, psutil.AccessDenied, psutil.ZombieProcess):
            pass

def data(start_val):
    # Returns the data consumed while connected
    start_val = 0
    result = 0
    global timer

    while True:
        current_val = psutil.net_io_counters().bytes_sent + psutil.net_io_counters().bytes_recv
        result = current_val - start_val + result
        start_val = current_val
        timer = threading.Timer(1.0, data)
        timer.start()
        timer.cancel()
        return convert_to_mo(result)

def main():
    # Runs and displays data
    kiss = data(0)
    display_label['text'] = str(kiss) + ' || Mo Consumed '
    display_label.pack()
    app.after(5, main)
    #gc.collect(kiss)

def convert_to_mo(value):
    # 1 octet = 1 byte = 8 bits // 1024 bytes = 8192 bits = 1 kb;
    return value/1000000

app = Tk()
app.title("Data Consumption Monitor")
app.geometry('420x40')
app.configure(background = 'black')
frame = Frame(app)
display_label = Label(frame, font = 'montserrat 20', bg = 'black', fg = '#20C20E')
frame.pack(anchor=CENTER)
running_processes()
main()
app.mainloop()

You're updating the label 200 times a second. Is that really necessary? — Bryan Oakley, Mar 18 '20 at 16:21
I'm not a Python expert, so maybe the answer is obvious, but Why did you write `while True:...` and then put an unconditional `return` in the body of the loop? — Solomon Slow, Mar 18 '20 at 17:23
@BryanOakley I reduced it to 1 time a second, thanks for the tip! Although I did that the program still increases in RAM consumption over time. — Omar Idrissi Yazami, Mar 18 '20 at 17:43
@JasarOrion It reduces drastically its memory usage but still increases over time — Omar Idrissi Yazami, Mar 18 '20 at 17:46
@SolomonSlow It's my first time coding in Python as well, I just thought It would make it loop unconditionnally so it displays the data continuously. — Omar Idrissi Yazami, Mar 18 '20 at 17:47
@OmarIdrissiYazami, `while True` potentially will loop forever, but a `return` statement anywhere in a function will cause the function to _immediately_ return. Nothing that comes after the `return` statement will be executed, and if the `return` is in a loop, there will be no more iterations of the loop. — Solomon Slow, Mar 18 '20 at 19:57
@SolomonSlow Thank you so much for clearing a concept I totally missed! — Omar Idrissi Yazami, Mar 18 '20 at 20:28

How to stop Python Program from continually increasing memory usage?

0 Answers0