Import Upstream version 20180207
[hcoop/debian/mlton.git] / doc / guide / localhost / Reachability
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26 <h1>Reachability</h1>
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31 <div class="paragraph"><p>Reachability is a notion dealing with the graph of heap objects
32 maintained at runtime. Nodes in the graph are heap objects and edges
33 correspond to the pointers between heap objects. As the program runs,
34 it allocates new objects (adds nodes to the graph), and those new
35 objects can contain pointers to other objects (new edges in the
36 graph). If the program uses mutable objects (refs or arrays), it can
37 also change edges in the graph.</p></div>
38 <div class="paragraph"><p>At any time, the program has access to some finite set of <em>root</em>
39 nodes, and can only ever access nodes that are reachable by following
40 edges from these root nodes. Nodes that are <em>unreachable</em> can be
41 garbage collected.</p></div>
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44 <div class="sect1">
45 <h2 id="_also_see">Also see</h2>
46 <div class="sectionbody">
47 <div class="ulist"><ul>
48 <li>
49 <p>
50 <a href="MLtonFinalizable">MLtonFinalizable</a>
51 </p>
52 </li>
53 <li>
54 <p>
55 <a href="MLtonWeak">MLtonWeak</a>
56 </p>
57 </li>
58 </ul></div>
59 </div>
60 </div>
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