\Header{gc}{Garbage Collection}
\alias{gcinfo}{gc}
\keyword{environment}{gc}
\begin{Description}\relax
A call of \code{gc} causes a garbage collection to take place.
\code{gcinfo} sets a flag so that
automatic collection is either silent (\code{verbose=FALSE}) or
prints memory usage statistics (\code{verbose=TRUE}).
\end{Description}
\begin{Usage}
\begin{verbatim}
gc(verbose = getOption("verbose"))
gcinfo(verbose)
\end{verbatim}
\end{Usage}
\begin{Arguments}
\begin{ldescription}
\item[\code{verbose}] logical; if \code{TRUE}, the garbage collection prints
statistics about cons cells and the vector heap.
\end{ldescription}
\end{Arguments}
\begin{Details}\relax
A call of \code{gc} causes a garbage collection to take place.
This takes place automatically without user intervention, and the
primary purpose of calling \code{gc} is for the report on memory usage.

However, it can be useful to call \code{gc} after a large object
has been removed, as this may prompt \R{} to return memory to the
operating system.
\end{Details}
\begin{Value}
\code{gc} returns a matrix with rows \code{"Ncells"} (\emph{cons
cells}, usually 28 bytes each on 32-bit systems and 56 bytes on
64-bit systems, and \code{"Vcells"} (\emph{vector cells}, 8 bytes
each), and columns \code{"used"} and \code{"gc trigger"},
each also interpreted in megabytes (rounded up to the next 0.1Mb).

If maxima have been set for either \code{"Ncells"} or \code{"Vcells"},
a fifth column is printed giving the current limits in Mb (with
\code{NA} denoting no limit).

\code{gcinfo} returns the previous value of the flag.
\end{Value}
\begin{SeeAlso}\relax
\code{\Link{Memory}} on \R's memory management,
and \code{\Link{gctorture}} if you are an \R{} hacker.
\code{\Link{reg.finalizer}} for actions to happen upon garbage
collection.
\end{SeeAlso}
\begin{Examples}
\begin{ExampleCode}
gc() #- do it now
gcinfo(TRUE) #-- in the future, show when R does it
x <- integer(100000); for(i in 1:18) x <- c(x,i)
gcinfo(verbose = FALSE)#-- don't show it anymore

gc(TRUE)
\end{ExampleCode}
\end{Examples}

