What is PHP Garbage Collection? – Complete handbook & FAQ What is PHP Garbage Collection? PHP garbage collection (GC) is the built‑in mechanism that automatically reclaims memory occupied by variables and objects that are no longer reachable by the running script. By freeing unused memory, GC helps prevent memory leaks, improves performance, and keeps long‑running PHP processes (like workers, daemons, or scripts executed via php -d) stable. Why Does PHP Need Garbage Collection? PHP scripts often craft thousands of objects, arrays, and resources during a single request. Without an automated way to clean up memory, developers would have to manually…
