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I'm trying to track down a memory leak in the state_machine gem that I began to notice when I started dynamically generating state machines using anonymous classes per the README example. This gist demonstrates how I uncovered the issue originally.

I've been able to narrow down the problem to the way helper methods get defined in the state machine gem which I've summarized in this gist.

My question is, what is the define_method block doing that causes the anonymous class not to get garbage collected? Commenting those 3 lines (18-20) seems to solve the issue.

Thanks in advance for any pointers.

Update: I'm using Ruby 2.0.0p195

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Would be good to know which Ruby implementation you're using. –  Gene Jul 12 '13 at 5:15
    
Thanks for pointing that out. I'm using 2.0.0p195. I've updated the question. –  jhuckabee Jul 12 '13 at 5:25
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This article explains the problem.

The main down side is that define_method creates a closure. The closure could hold references to large objects, and those large objects will never be garbage collected.

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