PythonAlgorithm::__del__ method is not called

[martyngigg]

This scripts demonstrates that the Python object __del__ method is never called when it should be, indicating that the objects are not being deleted.

#!python
from mantid.kernel import *
from mantid.api import *

OBJECT_COUNT = 0

class ObjectTracker(Algorithm):

    def __init__(self):
        global OBJECT_COUNT
        OBJECT_COUNT += 1
        Algorithm.__init__(self)

    def __del__(self):
        global OBJECT_COUNT
        OBJECT_COUNT -= 1
        print "Called __del__"

    def PyInit(self):
        pass

    def PyExec(self):
        print "PyExec"

####################################################################                                                                          
AlgorithmFactory.subscribe(ObjectTracker)
####################################################################                                                                          

OBJECT_COUNT = 0
for i in range(10):
    alg = AlgorithmManager.createUnmanaged("ObjectTracker")
    print "Global object count=%d" % OBJECT_COUNT
    alg.initialize()
    alg.setLogging(False)
    alg.execute()
    del alg

print "Final count",OBJECT_COUNT

The final count should be zero but it will be 10.

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Keywords: Maintenance

[martyngigg]

This issue was originally trac ticket 9513