JESS: Defrules keep references to retracted facts

[Ian de Beer]

Title: JESS: Defrules keep references to retracted facts

Hi
We noticed  when running a profiler on our application that even though we retract / undefinstance facts that are no longer used, jess retains a reference to those facts, therefore preventing the garbage collector from releasing heap space.  This cause our application to steadily outgrow available memory.
Is there a way of clearing old references from defrules while running Jess in run-unit-halt mode - “reset” seems to be an obvious way to do just that, but when is an opportune time to that, if you are constantly asserting new facts?
Regards
Ian