MemoryMonitor will monitor system memory and suggest to the application when to free memory so as to leave more room for other applications. It is implemented on Linux using the Low Memory Monitor (API documentation).

There is also an implementation for use inside Flatpak sandboxes.

Possible actions to take when the signal is received are:

• Free caches
• Save files that haven't been looked at in a while to disk, ready to be reopened when needed
• Run a garbage collection cycle
• Try and compress fragmented allocations
• Exit on idle if the process has no reason to stay around

See MemoryMonitorWarningLevel for details on the various warning levels.

C code

static void
warning_cb (GMemoryMonitor *m, GMemoryMonitorWarningLevel level)
{
  g_debug ("Warning level: %d", level);
  if (warning_level > G_MEMORY_MONITOR_WARNING_LEVEL_LOW)
    drop_caches ();
}

static GMemoryMonitor *
monitor_low_memory (void)
{
  GMemoryMonitor *m;
  m = g_memory_monitor_dup_default ();
  g_signal_connect (G_OBJECT (m), "low-memory-warning",
                    G_CALLBACK (warning_cb), NULL);
  return m;
}

Don't forget to disconnect the lowMemoryWarning signal, and unref the MemoryMonitor itself when exiting.

Since: 2.64