<html><body style="word-wrap: break-word; -webkit-nbsp-mode: space; -webkit-line-break: after-white-space; ">Dear all,<div><br></div><div>Erlang reference manual makes a following statement regarding erlang:hibernate/3</div><div><br></div><div>"<a name="hibernate-3"><span class="bold_code">erlang:hibernate(Module, Function, Args)</span></a></div>
<div class="REFBODY"><p><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6">Types:</font></p>
<div class="REFTYPES">
<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6"><span class="bold_code">Module = Function = atom()</span><br>
</font></div>
<div class="REFTYPES">
<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6"><span class="bold_code">Args = [term()]</span><br>
</font></div>
</div>
<div class="REFBODY"><div>
<font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6"><br class="webkit-block-placeholder"></font></div><p><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6">Puts the calling process into a wait state where its memory
allocation has been reduced as much as possible, which is
useful if the process does not expect to receive any messages
in the <b>near future</b>.</font></p><div><font class="Apple-style-span" color="#183fa6">…</font>"</div><div><br></div><div>I have never used the hibernate function fearing that performance penalty to be paid may be to high. In other words, I never really had to use it ;-)</div><div><br></div><div>But now that I do, may I kindly ask if there is anyone out there that did successfully used this feature and has a clear idea regarding performance penalty.</div><div>Would it be cheaper to store and retrieve a context using ETS (which would certainly complicate programming), or would a call to hibernate do the trick?</div><div><br></div><div>Maybe another way to ask this question could be: what is the cost of calling a garbage collection frequently?</div><div><br></div><div>Also, would anyone care to define a meaning of "<i><b>the near future</b></i>" within this context? Should one measure "<i>the near future</i>" in milliseconds, seconds or minutes?</div><div><br></div><div>Kind regards</div><div><br></div><div>V/</div></div></body></html>