Reflect.Emit Dynamic Type Memory Blowup

Question

Using C# 3.5 I am trying to generate dynamic types at runtime using reflection emit. I used the Dynamic Query Library sample from Microsoft to create a class generator. Everything works, my problem is that 100 generated types inflate the memory usage by approximately 25MB. This is a completely unacceptable memory profile as eventually I want to support having several hundred thousand types generated in memory.

Memory profiling shows that the memory is apparently being held by various System.Reflection.Emit types and methods though I can't figure out why. I haven't found others talking about this problem so I am hoping someone in this community either knows what I am doing wrong or if this is expected behavior.

Contrived Example below:

using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Reflection;
using System.Reflection.Emit;

namespace SmallRelfectExample
{
    class Program
    {
        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            int typeCount = 100;
            int propCount = 100;
            Random rand = new Random();
            Type dynType = null;
            SlimClassFactory scf = new SlimClassFactory();
            for (int i = 0; i < typeCount; i++)
            {
                List<DynamicProperty> dpl = new List<DynamicProperty>(propCount);
                for (int j = 0; j < propCount; j++)
                {
                    dpl.Add(new DynamicProperty("Key" + rand.Next().ToString(), typeof(String)));
                }
                dynType = scf.CreateDynamicClass(dpl.ToArray(), i);
                //Optionally do something with the type here
            }
            Console.WriteLine("SmallRelfectExample: {0} Types generated.", typeCount);
            Console.ReadLine();
        }
    }
    public class SlimClassFactory
    {
        private readonly ModuleBuilder module;
        public SlimClassFactory()
        {
            AssemblyName name = new AssemblyName("DynamicClasses");
            AssemblyBuilder assembly = AppDomain.CurrentDomain.DefineDynamicAssembly(name, AssemblyBuilderAccess.Run);
            module = assembly.DefineDynamicModule("Module");

        }
        public Type CreateDynamicClass(DynamicProperty[] properties, int Id)
        {
            string typeName = "DynamicClass" + Id.ToString();
            TypeBuilder tb = module.DefineType(typeName, TypeAttributes.Class |
                TypeAttributes.Public, typeof(DynamicClass));
            FieldInfo[] fields = GenerateProperties(tb, properties);
            GenerateEquals(tb, fields);
            GenerateGetHashCode(tb, fields);
            Type result = tb.CreateType();
            return result;
        }
        static FieldInfo[] GenerateProperties(TypeBuilder tb, DynamicProperty[] properties)
        {
            FieldInfo[] fields = new FieldBuilder[properties.Length];
            for (int i = 0; i < properties.Length; i++)
            {
                DynamicProperty dp = properties[i];
                FieldBuilder fb = tb.DefineField("_" + dp.Name, dp.Type, FieldAttributes.Private);
                PropertyBuilder pb = tb.DefineProperty(dp.Name, PropertyAttributes.HasDefault, dp.Type, null);
                MethodBuilder mbGet = tb.DefineMethod("get_" + dp.Name,
                    MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.SpecialName | MethodAttributes.HideBySig,
                    dp.Type, Type.EmptyTypes);
                ILGenerator genGet = mbGet.GetILGenerator();
                genGet.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
                genGet.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, fb);
                genGet.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
                MethodBuilder mbSet = tb.DefineMethod("set_" + dp.Name,
                    MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.SpecialName | MethodAttributes.HideBySig,
                    null, new Type[] { dp.Type });
                ILGenerator genSet = mbSet.GetILGenerator();
                genSet.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
                genSet.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
                genSet.Emit(OpCodes.Stfld, fb);
                genSet.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
                pb.SetGetMethod(mbGet);
                pb.SetSetMethod(mbSet);
                fields[i] = fb;
            }
            return fields;
        }
        static void GenerateEquals(TypeBuilder tb, FieldInfo[] fields)
        {
            MethodBuilder mb = tb.DefineMethod("Equals",
                MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.ReuseSlot |
                MethodAttributes.Virtual | MethodAttributes.HideBySig,
                typeof(bool), new Type[] { typeof(object) });
            ILGenerator gen = mb.GetILGenerator();
            LocalBuilder other = gen.DeclareLocal(tb);
            Label next = gen.DefineLabel();
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_1);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Isinst, tb);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Stloc, other);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc, other);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Brtrue_S, next);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldc_I4_0);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
            gen.MarkLabel(next);
            foreach (FieldInfo field in fields)
            {
                Type ft = field.FieldType;
                Type ct = typeof(EqualityComparer<>).MakeGenericType(ft);
                next = gen.DefineLabel();
                gen.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, ct.GetMethod("get_Default"), null);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, field);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldloc, other);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, field);
                gen.EmitCall(OpCodes.Callvirt, ct.GetMethod("Equals", new Type[] { ft, ft }), null);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Brtrue_S, next);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldc_I4_0);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
                gen.MarkLabel(next);
            }
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldc_I4_1);
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
        }
        static void GenerateGetHashCode(TypeBuilder tb, FieldInfo[] fields)
        {
            MethodBuilder mb = tb.DefineMethod("GetHashCode",
                MethodAttributes.Public | MethodAttributes.ReuseSlot |
                MethodAttributes.Virtual | MethodAttributes.HideBySig,
                typeof(int), Type.EmptyTypes);
            ILGenerator gen = mb.GetILGenerator();
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldc_I4_0);
            foreach (FieldInfo field in fields)
            {
                Type ft = field.FieldType;
                Type ct = typeof(EqualityComparer<>).MakeGenericType(ft);
                gen.EmitCall(OpCodes.Call, ct.GetMethod("get_Default"), null);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldarg_0);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ldfld, field);
                gen.EmitCall(OpCodes.Callvirt, ct.GetMethod("GetHashCode", new Type[] { ft }), null);
                gen.Emit(OpCodes.Xor);
            }
            gen.Emit(OpCodes.Ret);
        }
    }
    public abstract class DynamicClass
    {
        public override string ToString()
        {
            PropertyInfo[] props = GetType().GetProperties(BindingFlags.Instance | BindingFlags.Public);
            StringBuilder sb = new StringBuilder();
            sb.Append("{");
            for (int i = 0; i < props.Length; i++)
            {
                if (i > 0) sb.Append(", ");
                sb.Append(props[i].Name);
                sb.Append("=");
                sb.Append(props[i].GetValue(this, null));
            }
            sb.Append("}");
            return sb.ToString();
        }
    }
    public class DynamicProperty
    {
        private readonly string name;
        private readonly Type type;

        public DynamicProperty(string name, Type type)
        {
            if (name == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("name");
            if (type == null) throw new ArgumentNullException("type");
            this.name = name;
            this.type = type;
        }

        public string Name
        {
            get { return name; }
        }

        public Type Type
        {
            get { return type; }
        }
    }
}

Answer 1

Well, the first thing I note is that you are creating a new factory, and hence new AssemblyBuilder, each iteration. Can you re-use the factory (creating multiple types in the same dynamic assembly)?

Answer 2

Unfortunately, there is a static field in ModuleBuilder holding onto the memory, and that will never get GC'd. I cant recall which field and what it contained now, but this can be seen from within SOS in WinDbg.

The good news is that .NET 4 supports GC-able dynamic assemblies :)