GooseArrays.jl

Inspired by Goose, GooseArrays.jl brings temporary arrays with controlled lifetimes to Julia's AbstractArray interface. Elements live in a preallocated mmap arena, without requiring a separate GC allocation for each data buffer. Shapes can be dynamic (GooseArray) or encoded in the type (StaticGooseArray). Arrays become invalid when their scope ends or their arena is reset or closed.

Not the native stack

DataStack describes an allocation and lifetime discipline. Neither the array data nor its descriptors are guaranteed to reside on the native call stack. Escaping array descriptors may still allocate on the GC heap.

Start with Getting started and the API reference. Benchmark methodology is described in Performance.

How it works

Create an arena with DataStack or with_datastack.
Use alloc! or the GooseArray / StaticGooseArray constructors to allocate contiguous, non-resizable arrays from the arena.
Use with_scope for temporary allocations; the arena cursor is restored when the scope exits.
reset! and close invalidate affected arrays. Invalid access raises InvalidatedArrayError, even under @inbounds.
Each arena belongs to the Julia Task that created it; arenas cannot be shared across tasks.

Only positive-size isbits element types are supported. Currently supported backends: Linux, macOS, and FreeBSD.