Patent ID: 6496864
Filing Date: 2002-12-17
Classification: G06F,Y10S

Abstract:
A method for destroying orphaned software objects created by a resource allocating process and orphaned by termination of said process in a computer system having a central processing unit, said orphaned software objects including at least one link that currently points to an undefined location but that previously pointed to at least one other software object, and for freeing shared system resources allocated for use by said resource allocating process, the method comprising the steps of:starting a helper process; and said helper process destroying said orphaned software objects and freeing said system resources by calling at least one function in a library that is shared among all processes running on said computer, said at least one function destroying said orphaned software objects originally created by said resource allocating process through said shared library and freeing system resources by performing at least the steps of: searching an internal list of objects in order to identify said orphaned software objects that were originally created by said resource allocating process before said resource allocating process terminated but that still exist after said resource allocating process has terminated; and calling at least one function associated with said orphaned software objects that releases system resources used by said orphaned software objects and destroys said orphaned software objects without attempting to destroy said at least other object, so as to avoid referring to a nonexistent object.