How can I release memory after creating matplotlib figures

I have several matlpotlib functions rolled into some django-celery tasks. Every time the tasks are called more RAM is dedicated to python. Before too long, python is taking up all of the RAM. QUESTION: How can I release this memory? UPDATE 2 - A Second Solution: I asked a similar question specifically about the memory locked up when matplotlib errors, but I got a good answer to this question `.clf()`, `.close()`, and `gc.collect()` aren't needed if you use multiprocess to run the plotting function in a separate process whose memory will automatically be freed once the process ends. Matplotlib errors result in a memory leak. How can I free up that memory? UPDATE - The Solution: These stackoverflow posts suggested that I can release the memory used by matplotlib objects with the following commands: `.clf()`: Matplotlib runs out of memory when plotting in a loop `.close()`: Python matplotlib: memory not being released when specifying figure size ``` import gc gc.collect() ``` Here is the example I used to test the solution: ``` import matplotlib matplotlib.use('Agg') import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from pylab import import figure, savefig import numpy as np import gc a = np.arange(1000000) b = np.random.randn(1000000) fig = plt.figure(num=1, dpi=100, facecolor='w', edgecolor='w') fig.set_size_inches(10,7) ax = fig.add_subplot(111) ax.plot(a, b) fig.clf() plt.close() del a, b gc.collect() ```