html_url,issue_url,id,node_id,user,created_at,updated_at,author_association,body,reactions,performed_via_github_app,issue
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-1416446874,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,1416446874,IC_kwDOAMm_X85UbUOa,1325771,2023-02-03T21:52:57Z,2023-02-03T21:52:57Z,CONTRIBUTOR,"I was iterating today over a large dataset loaded with `open_mfdataset`, and had been observing memory usage growing from 2GB to 8GB+.
I can confirm that `xr.set_options(file_cache_maxsize=1)` kept memory use at a steady 2GB, properly releasing memory.
```
libnetcdf 4.8.1 nompi_h261ec11_106 conda-forge
netcdf4 1.6.0 nompi_py310h0a86a1f_103 conda-forge
xarray 2023.1.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
dask 2023.1.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
dask-core 2023.1.0 pyhd8ed1ab_0 conda-forge
```","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-530800751,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,530800751,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUzMDgwMDc1MQ==,1262767,2019-09-12T12:24:12Z,2019-09-12T12:36:02Z,NONE,"I have observed a similar memleak (config see below).
It occurs for both parameters engine=netcdf4 and engine=h5netcdf.
Example for loading a 1.2GB netCDF file:
In contrast, the memory is just released with a `del ds` on the object, this is the large memory (2.6GB) - a `ds.close()` has no effect. There is still a ""minor"" memleak remaining (4MB), when a `open_dataset` is called. See the output using the `memory_profiler` package:
```python
Line # Mem usage Increment Line Contents
================================================
31 168.9 MiB 168.9 MiB @profile
32 def load_and_unload_ds():
33 173.0 MiB 4.2 MiB ds = xr.open_dataset(LFS_DATA_DIR + '/dist2coast_1deg_merged.nc')
34 2645.4 MiB 2472.4 MiB ds.load()
35 2645.4 MiB 0.0 MiB ds.close()
36 173.5 MiB 0.0 MiB del ds
```
- there is **no** difference using `open_dataset(file, engine='h5netcdf')`, the minor memleak is even larger (~9MB).
- memory leak persists, if an additional chunks parameter is used for `open_dataset`
**Output of `xr.show_versions()`**
INSTALLED VERSIONS
------------------
commit: None
python: 3.6.7 | packaged by conda-forge | (default, Jul 2 2019, 02:18:42)
[GCC 7.3.0]
python-bits: 64
OS: Linux
OS-release: 4.15.0-62-generic
machine: x86_64
processor: x86_64
byteorder: little
LC_ALL: None
LANG: en_US.UTF-8
LOCALE: en_US.UTF-8
libhdf5: 1.10.5
libnetcdf: 4.6.2
xarray: 0.12.3
pandas: 0.25.1
numpy: 1.16.4
scipy: 1.2.1
netCDF4: 1.5.1.2
pydap: None
h5netcdf: 0.7.4
h5py: 2.9.0
Nio: None
zarr: None
cftime: 1.0.3.4
nc_time_axis: None
PseudoNetCDF: None
rasterio: None
cfgrib: None
iris: None
bottleneck: None
dask: 2.3.0
distributed: 2.3.2
matplotlib: 3.1.1
cartopy: 0.17.0
seaborn: None
numbagg: None
setuptools: 41.0.1
pip: 19.2.3
conda: None
pytest: 5.0.1
IPython: 7.7.0
sphinx: None
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-520571376,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,520571376,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUyMDU3MTM3Ng==,19933988,2019-08-12T19:56:09Z,2019-08-12T19:56:09Z,NONE,"Awesome, thanks @shoyer and @crusaderky for looking into this. I've tested it with the h5netcdf engine and it the leak is mostly mitigated... for the simple case at least. Unfortunately the actual model files that I'm working with do not appear to be compatible with h5py (I believe related to this issue https://github.com/h5py/h5py/issues/719). But that's another problem entirely!
@crusaderky, I will hopefully get to trying your suggestions 3) and 4). As for your last point, I haven't tested explicitly, but yes I believe that it does continue to grow linearly more iterations.
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-520182257,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,520182257,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUyMDE4MjI1Nw==,1217238,2019-08-10T21:53:39Z,2019-08-10T21:53:39Z,MEMBER,"Also, if you're having memory issues I also would definitely recommend upgrading to a newer version of xarray. There was a recent fix that helps ensure that files get automatically closed when they are garbage collected, even if you don't call `close()` or use a context manager explicitly.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-520182139,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,520182139,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUyMDE4MjEzOQ==,1217238,2019-08-10T21:51:25Z,2019-08-10T21:52:24Z,MEMBER,"Thanks for the profiling script. I ran a few permutations of this:
- `xarray.open_mfdataset` with `engine='netcdf4'` (default)
- `xarray.open_mfdataset` with `engine='h5netcdf'`
- `xarray.open_dataset` with `engine='netcdf4'` (default)
- `xarray.open_dataset` with `engine='h5netcdf'`
Here are some plots:
`xarray.open_mfdataset` with `engine='netcdf4'`: pretty noticeable memory leak, about 0.5 MB / `open_mfdataset` call:

`xarray.open_mfdataset` with `engine='h5netcdf'`: looks like a small memory leak, about 0.1 MB / `open_mfdataset` call:

`xarray.open_dataset` with `engine='netcdf4'` (default): definitely has a memory leak:

`xarray.open_dataset` with `engine='h5netcdf'`: does not appear to have a memory leak:

So in conclusion, it looks like there are memory leaks:
1. when using netCDF4-Python (I was also able to confirm these without using xarray at all, just using `netCDF4.Dataset`)
2. when using `xarray.open_mfdataset`
(1) looks like by far the bigger issue, which you can work around by switching to scipy or h5netcdf to read your files.
(2) is an issue for xarray. We do do some caching, specifically with our [backend file manager](https://github.com/pydata/xarray/blob/befc72f052a189c114695b4ae9a1c66533617336/xarray/backends/file_manager.py), but given that issues only seem to appear when using `open_mfdataset`, I suspect it may have more to do with the interaction with Dask, though to be honest I'm not exactly sure how.
Note: I modified your script to xarray's file cache size to 1, which helps smooth out the memory usage:
```python
def CreateTestFiles():
# create a bunch of files
xlen = int(1e2)
ylen = int(1e2)
xdim = np.arange(xlen)
ydim = np.arange(ylen)
nfiles = 100
for i in range(nfiles):
data = np.random.rand(xlen, ylen, 1)
datafile = xr.DataArray(data, coords=[xdim, ydim, [i]], dims=['x', 'y', 'time'])
datafile.to_netcdf('testfile_{}.nc'.format(i))
@profile
def ReadFiles():
# for i in range(100):
# ds = xr.open_dataset('testfile_{}.nc'.format(i), engine='netcdf4')
# ds.close()
ds = xr.open_mfdataset(glob.glob('testfile_*'), engine='h5netcdf', concat_dim='time')
ds.close()
if __name__ == '__main__':
# write out files for testing
CreateTestFiles()
xr.set_options(file_cache_maxsize=1)
# loop thru file read step
for i in range(100):
ReadFiles()
```
","{""total_count"": 2, ""+1"": 1, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 1, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-520136799,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,520136799,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUyMDEzNjc5OQ==,6213168,2019-08-10T10:10:11Z,2019-08-10T10:11:18Z,MEMBER,"Oh but first and foremost - CPython memory management is designed so that, when PyMem_Free() is invoked, CPython will hold on to it and not invoke the underlying free() syscall, hoping to reuse it on the next PyMem_Alloc().
An increase in RAM usage from 160 to 200MB could very well be explained by this.
Try increasing the number of loops in your test 100-fold and see if you get a 100-fold increase in memory usage too (from 160MB to 1.2GB). If yes, it's a real leak; if it remains much more contained, it's normal CPython behaviour.","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812
https://github.com/pydata/xarray/issues/3200#issuecomment-520136482,https://api.github.com/repos/pydata/xarray/issues/3200,520136482,MDEyOklzc3VlQ29tbWVudDUyMDEzNjQ4Mg==,6213168,2019-08-10T10:06:07Z,2019-08-10T10:06:07Z,MEMBER,"Hi,
xarray doesn't have any global objects that I know of that can cause the leak - I'm willing to bet on the underlying libraries.
1. given your installed packages, open_mfdataset _should_ be defaulting NetCDF4. Please try your measure again after setting it explicitly ``open_mfdataset(..., engine='netcdf4')``
2. See if the problem disappears if you pass ``engine='h5netcdf'``
3. Once you have confirmed the actual underlying library, try using it directly without xarray in your ReadFiles test: for every file returned by glob, open it with the netCDF4 package and load into memory all coords (not the data).
4. Once NetCDF4 is confirmed to be the culprit, if you can it would be great if you could rewrite the test (only the read part) in C using the NetCDF C library to figure out if the leak is in it or in the Python wrapper.
","{""total_count"": 0, ""+1"": 0, ""-1"": 0, ""laugh"": 0, ""hooray"": 0, ""confused"": 0, ""heart"": 0, ""rocket"": 0, ""eyes"": 0}",,479190812