Python’s garbage collection mechanism relies on the Global Interpreter Lock (GIL) which can cause some limitations on memory management, multi-threading, and CPU utilization. This paper explores the impact of GIL on memory management and multi-threading in Python. The GIL prevents multiple threads from executing Python bytecodes at once, which can result in memory leaks and degrade performance. Additionally, the GIL affects multi-threading by putting a lock on each variable and maintaining a usage counter. If a thread wants to access a variable that is already being used by another thread, it must wait until the first thread has released the variable. This limitation can have implications for multi-threaded programs that rely heavily on CPU-bound operations. Specific examples are provided to illustrate the limitations and workarounds.
