This module provides an internal implementation to track descendants which is faster than iterating through ObjectSpace.

Methods

Class Public methods

clear()

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 23
def clear
  if defined? ActiveSupport::Dependencies
    @@direct_descendants.each do |klass, descendants|
      if Dependencies.autoloaded?(klass)
        @@direct_descendants.delete(klass)
      else
        descendants.reject! { |v| Dependencies.autoloaded?(v) }
      end
    end
  else
    @@direct_descendants.clear
  end
end

descendants(klass)

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 17
def descendants(klass)
  arr = []
  accumulate_descendants(klass, arr)
  arr
end

direct_descendants(klass)

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 12
def direct_descendants(klass)
  descendants = @@direct_descendants[klass]
  descendants ? descendants.to_a : []
end

store_inherited(klass, descendant)

This is the only method that is not thread safe, but is only ever called during the eager loading phase.

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 39
def store_inherited(klass, descendant)
  (@@direct_descendants[klass] ||= DescendantsArray.new) << descendant
end

Instance Public methods

descendants()

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 63
def descendants
  DescendantsTracker.descendants(self)
end

direct_descendants()

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 59
def direct_descendants
  DescendantsTracker.direct_descendants(self)
end

inherited(base)

Source: 

# File activesupport/lib/active_support/descendants_tracker.rb, line 54
def inherited(base)
  DescendantsTracker.store_inherited(self, base)
  super
end