fix memory leak: ensure hooks are cleaned up on exception in find_alignment #2681
+11
−10
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Fixed Critical Memory Leak in Word-Level Timestamp Alignment
Problem Identified
find_alignment()function causing hooks to persist on exceptionRoot Cause Analysis
whisper/timing.py, lines 187-204○ Hooks remain attached to cross-attention layers on failure
○ Memory consumption increases with each failed alignment attempt
○ Model state becomes polluted across subsequent inference calls
○ Performance degradation in production environments
Solution Implemented
Technical Details
find_alignment()○
tryblock wraps model forward pass and attention weight extraction○
finallyblock ensures all registered hooks are removed○ Exception-safe cleanup prevents memory leaks
○ No performance impact on normal execution path