Do variables in module scripts get garbage collected if they're no longer referenced?

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#1

Do variables in module scripts get garbage collected if they’re no longer referenced?

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#2

Generally the rules would be the same as normal.

-- some ModuleScript
-- Never garbage collected (but only because this is returned from the module), 
-- because every call to `require` after the first has to return the same table
local a = {}

-- Garbage collected after the module script runs the first time
local b = {}

do
  -- Garbage collected after it goes out of scope of the `do ... end` block
  local c = {}
end

-- Never garbage collected, because its referenced by `a` and `a` is not
local d = {}
a.d = d

-- Garbage collected only if that `Part` is destroyed/also collected.
local conn = workspace.Part.Touched:Connect(function() print("touch") end)

return a
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#3

So these variables would get gc’d if I had my module like this?

local b = {} do
local Variable = 1
local Variable = 2
end

return b

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#4

They wouldn’t need to be inside that do ... end block at all. See b in my original reply. It will be GC’d just fine.

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