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Here are the rules for memory management in mulle-objc.

Use of -release

-release should only be used in the following special methods:

  • -init methods
  • -dealloc
  • +load and +unload
  • +initialize and +deinitialize

-release may be used in circumstances like the following, if you are certain that the intervening code can not raise an exception. This is still not recommended though:

  p = [Foo new];
  [array addObject:p];
  [p release];

Use of a variable after release

You should not use an instance’s address after it has been released.

E.g. this is not good code:

  p = [Foo new];
  [array addObject:p];
  q = p;  // alias to trick a future compiler
  [p release];
  return( q);

Use of -autorelease

-autorelease is the method to relinquish ownership of an object. Use of -autorelease is critical to maintain temporal consistency and ownership transfer.

Use -autorelease everywhere, also in -finalize, except where use of -release is indicated.

-autorelease immediately after +new or +alloc/-init with -autorelease. This will be crucial for leak checking test code.

Also read ARC porting tips on how to write code, that works well on all Objective-C platforms.

Tags: runtime