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Memory Leak - React DOM keeps references to stale child components when using the Container/Pure component patternΒ #18790

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@jzworkman

Description

@jzworkman

Do you want to request a feature or report a bug?
Report a bug.

What is the current behavior?
ReactDOM keeps references to previous states/props/children when component gets updated. All in all consuming three times as much memory as it really needed.

We are seeing this as a significant issue when using Redux and container components. When our container componet(that is connected to redux store) passes props to the child components, and then the redux store updates. The child component props are being stranded in the dom with old reference(seen in the heap after forcing a garbage collection cycle). This is causing huge amounts of memory bloat when on a page that is connected to signalR for real time collaboration between users(as each redux update creates hundreds of stranded object references in the child components).

I have verified that this is the cause by instead having all of the previously "dumb" pure child components be converted to Connected components and pull their props from redux instead of having the container component pattern control all of the store connections. this then correctly all references the single redux store object and garbage collection works as expected without stranded references.

If the current behavior is a bug, please provide the steps to reproduce and if possible a minimal demo of the problem. Your bug will get fixed much faster if we can run your code and it doesn't have dependencies other than React. Paste the link to your JSFiddle (https://jsfiddle.net/Luktwrdm/) or CodeSandbox (https://codesandbox.io/s/new) example below:

Link to the example below (using production versions of react and react-dom):
https://codesandbox.io/s/epic-bartik-pvgqx.

Consider following example:

import * as React from 'react';
import * as ReactDOM from 'react-dom';

let dataInstanceCount = 0;
class MyBigData {
  constructor() {
    const id = `my-big-data:${dataInstanceCount++}`;
    this.getMyDataId = () => id;
    this.data = new Array(100000).fill('');
  }
}

let componentInstanceCount = 0;
class MyItem extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this._myItemId = `my-item:${componentInstanceCount++}`;
    this.state = {list: []};
  }

  render() {
    return this.props.item.getMyDataId();
  }
}

class MyApp extends React.Component {
  constructor(props) {
    super(props);
    this.state = {list: []};
  }

  componentDidMount() {
    this.updateList(() => {
      this.updateList(() => {
        this.updateList();
      });
    });
  }

  updateList(callback) {
    this.setState({
      list: [new MyBigData()]
    }, callback);
  }

  render() {
    return this.state.list.map((item) => (
      <MyItem key={item.getMyDataId()} item={item} />
    ));
  }
}

const rootElement = document.getElementById('root');
ReactDOM.render(
  <MyApp />,
  rootElement
);

setTimeout(() => {
  console.log(
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.alternate.firstEffect.memoizedProps.item.getMyDataId(),
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.alternate.firstEffect.stateNode._myItemId
  );
  // > my-big-data:0, my-item:0
  console.log(
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.firstEffect.memoizedProps.item.getMyDataId(),
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.firstEffect.stateNode._myItemId
  );
  // > my-big-data:1, my-item:1
  console.log(
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.lastEffect.memoizedProps.item.getMyDataId(),
    rootElement._reactRootContainer._internalRoot.current.lastEffect.stateNode._myItemId
  );
  // > my-big-data:2, my-item:2
}, 1000);

I expect only one MyBigObject and one MyItem component to be in the memory. But instead I can see three of each in memory heap snapshot.

UPDATE
As shown in the updated example the references to these objects and components can be accessed in the sub-properties of the root DOM element.

What is the expected behavior?
There's no justifiable reason to keep in memory unmounted components and previous states/props of component after it was updated.

Which versions of React, and which browser / OS are affected by this issue? Did this work in previous versions of React?
React 16.9.0, ReactDOM 16.9.0 (Production versions)
Mac/Win

This info was gathered from the follow issue that was marked stale, but is still definitely an issue with Redux and passing store props to Pure Child unconnected components: #16138

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