Why does Python create two refcounts for an object on creation?

Question

So when I create an object without reference (as far as I can tell) why does Python maintain that there's a refcount for it?

>>> import sys
>>> sys.getrefcount(object())
1

The following makes sense based on this extra refcount.

>>> o = object()
>>> sys.getrefcount(o)
2
>>> l = list((o,))
>>> sys.getrefcount(o)
3
>>> del l[0]
>>> sys.getrefcount(o)
2

And it would seem that on

>>> del o

Python would Garbage Collect the object, but does it? If there's still a reference to it, where is that?

Answer 1

When you invoke sys.getrefcount(), a reference is generated for local use inside the function. getrefcount() will always add 1 to the actual count, because it counts its own internal ref.