Retain Cycle

Definitions

1. A memory leak pattern in reference-counted systems where two or more objects hold strong references to each other, preventing the runtime from ever deallocating them.

   In plain English: Two objects each refuse to let go of the other, so the system can never free either one and memory slowly fills up.

   Example: "The closure captured self strongly, creating a retain cycle that leaked the entire view controller."

Related Terms

• Space Complexity
• Allocatable
• Buffer
• Cache
• Chunk
• CocoaPods
• Segfault
• Memory Leak
• Time Zone Handling
• Floating Point
• Run Loop
• Size Class