Chapter 14

Custodians

When an extension allocates resources that must be explicitly freed (in the same way that a port must be explicitly closed), a Scheme object associated with the resource should be placed into the management of the current custodian with scheme_add_managed.

14.1  Library Functions

¤ Scheme_Custodian * scheme_make_custodian(Scheme_Custodian *m)

Creates a new custodian as a subordinate of m. If m is NULL, then the main custodian is used as the new custodian's supervisor. Do not use NULL for m unless you intend to create an especially priviledged custodian.

¤ Scheme_Custodian_Reference * scheme_add_managed(Scheme_Custodian *m, Scheme_Object *o,
    Scheme_Close_Custodian_Client *f, void *data,
    int strong)

Places the value o into the management of the custodian m. The f function is called by the custodian if it is ever asked to ``shutdown'' its values; o and data are passed on to f, which has the type

typedef void (*Scheme_Close_Custodian_Client)(Scheme_Object *o, void *data);

If strong is non-zero, then the newly managed value will be remembered until either the custodian shuts it down or scheme_remove_managed is called. If strong is zero, the value is allowed to be garbaged collected (and automatically removed from the custodian).

The return value from scheme_add_managed can be used to refer to the value's custodian later in a call to scheme_remove_managed. A value can be registered with at most one custodian.

¤ void scheme_remove_managed(Scheme_Custodian_Reference *mref, Scheme_Object *o)

Removes o from the management of its custodian. The mref argument must be a value returned by scheme_add_managed.

¤ void scheme_close_managed(Scheme_Custodian *m)

Instructs the custodian m to shutdown all of its managed values.

¤ void scheme_add_atexit_closer(Scheme_Exit_Closer_Func f)

Installs a function to be called on each custodian-registered item and its closer when MzScheme is about to exit. The registered function has the type

   typedef void (*Scheme_Exit_Closer_Func)(Scheme_Object *o,
                                           Scheme_Close_Custodian_Client *f, void *d);

where d is the second argument for f.