I recently had an adventure with Python subprocesses and memory. This isn't just a Python thing, but it's more of an issue because Python lacks proper multitre

I recently had an adventure with Python subprocesses and memory. This isn't just a Python thing, but it's more of an issue because Python lacks proper multitreading: processes don't necessarily return memory to the OS after free(), and Python doesn't necessarily free() unused memory after a GC run. If you're using a process pool where some work can be memory-intensive, this can massively increase total memory use as the job bounces between subprocesses.