[almcaeobtac]

Every 20 minutes or so after my plugin starts, it unloads itself from having too many open handles. (16000 something). What I don't get is why there are so many. After every handle I declare in the code, I close it, or at least I think I do.

stock ExitHandle(&Handle:ToClose)
{
	if(ToClose != INVALID_HANDLE)
    	{
        	CloseHandle(ToClose);
    	}

	ToClose = INVALID_HANDLE;
}

This returns no errors, so I guess it's doing it's job. The only handles that aren't being closed I suppose are timers. So I guess my question is, how do you close timer handles once they are finished?

[DarkEnergy]

single time timers are close automatically

you dont have to use &Handle:, just Handle:

are you creating many timers? use sm_dump_handles handles.txt to dump all handles in a file so you can see which type of handles they are

[retsam]

Most likely youre not handling your timer handles properly. Would kinda have to see how youre doing stuff to get a better idea...

[rhelgeby]

If you have repeated timers you should save the handles, like in an array if you use a timer per player.

Originally Posted by DarkEnergy you dont have to use &Handle:, just Handle:

ToClose must be passed as a reference, so the variable itself can be reset too.

[DarkEnergy]

Handle: automatically passes it by reference

ie
public Action:timercall(Handle:timer,any:data)

[rhelgeby]

Maybe I missed something, but as far as I know a handle variable is a regular cell variable tagged as Handle. It's not automatically passed by reference in function calls.

Originally Posted by almcaeobtac (...) how do you close timer handles once they are finished?

If the timer is finished you only need to reset the handle variable. Reset your handle variable within the timer callback when you know the timer is stopping, like right before you return Plugin_Stop for repeatable timers, or at the end of the callback for regular timers.

[DarkEnergy]

i am pretty sure handles are automatically passed by reference, just like arrays

[p3tsin]

Originally Posted by DarkEnergy i am pretty sure handles are automatically passed by reference, just like arrays

Nope.

[rhelgeby]

I think you're mixing the handle reference itself with a variable reference.

In most programming languages primitives are passed by value, objects by reference (not always the case though, like in Java which is always pass by value).

The handle (just a number) is passed as value, but is used to refer to an object. An array is considered an object because it's not a single value and therefore passed by reference.

[Monkeys]

Distilled from ^.
You can close a handle that's been passed, since you'll be "closing" the object it references with its value.
You can't set the value of a handle that's been passed, only of the buffer that it stored the passed handle in.

PHP Code:

public Starter()
{
new Handle:HandleOrig = PointToSomeObjectThroughSomeFunction();
Function(HandleOrig);//the passed Handle
}
public Function(Handle:HandleBuffer) //the Handle buffer
{
CloseHandle(HandleBuffer); //This will also close the HandleOrig, as it points to the same object
HandleBuffer = INVALID_HANDLE; //This will only set HandleBuffer, not HandleOrig, as it's not a reference.
} 


TL;DR: the & has to stay.