The Cite extension holds a reference to its associated Parser, and inserts its state object as a property of this Parser. Since PHP doesn't have weak references (yet), this structure makes it impossible to garbage-collect either object.
Break this circular reference.
Change 556352 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; owner: Awight):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] [WIP] Break circular reference between Cite and Parser
Change 556352 abandoned by Awight:
[WIP] Break circular reference between Cite and Parser
Reason:
Split into smaller patches.
Change 556382 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; owner: Awight):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Don't keep parser reference in Cite
Change 556383 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; owner: Awight):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from FootnoteMarkFormatter
Change 556384 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; owner: Awight):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from ReferencesFormatter
Change 556385 had a related patch set uploaded (by Awight; owner: Awight):
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from CiteErrorReporter
Change 556382 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Don't keep parser reference in Cite
Change 556383 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from FootnoteMarkFormatter
Change 556384 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from ReferencesFormatter
Change 556385 merged by jenkins-bot:
[mediawiki/extensions/Cite@master] Remove Parser state from CiteErrorReporter
There might not be a way to measure the impact of this change. We aren't measuring the total memory extent of each thread, and garbage collection is (allegedly) disabled, with no recorded metrics that might show us decreased memory pressure.