@@ -556,6 +556,8 @@ environment the global variable trick is not safe.)
 PyAPI_DATA(long) _Py_RefTotal;
 PyAPI_FUNC(void) _Py_NegativeRefcount(const char *fname,
 					    int lineno, PyObject *op);
+PyAPI_FUNC(PyObject *) _PyDict_Dummy(void);
+PyAPI_FUNC(long) _Py_GetRefTotal(void);
 #define _Py_INC_REFTOTAL	_Py_RefTotal++
 #define _Py_DEC_REFTOTAL	_Py_RefTotal--
 #define _Py_REF_DEBUG_COMMA	,
 
@@ -115,6 +115,14 @@ equally good collision statistics, needed less code & used less memory.
 /* Object used as dummy key to fill deleted entries */
 static PyObject *dummy; /* Initialized by first call to newdictobject() */
 
+#ifdef Py_REF_DEBUG
+PyObject *
+_PyDict_Dummy(void)
+{
+	return dummy;
+}
+#endif
+
 /* forward declarations */
 static dictentry *
 lookdict_string(dictobject *mp, PyObject *key, long hash);
 
@@ -5,7 +5,20 @@
 
 #ifdef Py_REF_DEBUG
 long _Py_RefTotal;
-#endif
+long
+_Py_GetRefTotal(void)
+{
+	PyObject *o;
+	long total = _Py_RefTotal;
+        /* ignore the references to the dummy object of the dicts
+           because they are not reliable and not useful (now that the
+           hash table code is well-tested) */
+	o = _PyDict_Dummy();
+	if (o != NULL)
+		total -= o->ob_refcnt;
+	return total;
+}
+#endif /* Py_REF_DEBUG */
 
 int Py_DivisionWarningFlag;
 
 
@@ -379,7 +379,7 @@ Py_Finalize(void)
 #endif
 
 #ifdef Py_REF_DEBUG
-	fprintf(stderr, "[%ld refs]\n", _Py_RefTotal);
+	fprintf(stderr, "[%ld refs]\n", _Py_GetRefTotal());
 #endif
 
 #ifdef Py_TRACE_REFS
@@ -694,7 +694,7 @@ PyRun_InteractiveLoopFlags(FILE *fp, const char *filename, PyCompilerFlags *flag
 	for (;;) {
 		ret = PyRun_InteractiveOneFlags(fp, filename, flags);
 #ifdef Py_REF_DEBUG
-		fprintf(stderr, "[%ld refs]\n", _Py_RefTotal);
+		fprintf(stderr, "[%ld refs]\n", _Py_GetRefTotal());
 #endif
 		if (ret == E_EOF)
 			return 0;
 
@@ -604,10 +604,9 @@ sys_getrefcount(PyObject *self, PyObject *arg)
 static PyObject *
 sys_gettotalrefcount(PyObject *self)
 {
-	return PyInt_FromLong(_Py_RefTotal);
+	return PyInt_FromLong(_Py_GetRefTotal());
 }
-
-#endif /* Py_TRACE_REFS */
+#endif /* Py_REF_DEBUG */
 
 PyDoc_STRVAR(getrefcount_doc,
 "getrefcount(object) -> integer\n\
Original file line number	Diff line number	Diff line change
`@@ -604,10 +604,9 @@ sys_getrefcount(PyObject self, PyObject arg)`
`604`	`604`	`static PyObject *`
`605`	`605`	`sys_gettotalrefcount(PyObject *self)`
`606`	`606`	`{`
`607`		`- return PyInt_FromLong(_Py_RefTotal);`
	`607`	`+ return PyInt_FromLong(_Py_GetRefTotal());`
`608`	`608`	`}`
`609`		`-`
`610`		`-#endif /* Py_TRACE_REFS */`
	`609`	`+#endif /* Py_REF_DEBUG */`
`611`	`610`
`612`	`611`	`PyDoc_STRVAR(getrefcount_doc,`
`613`	`612`	`"getrefcount(object) -> integer\n\`