Needs some clarification on static zend_string vs zend_new_interned_string (php internals).

Hello everyone, My name is David. I'm working on the refactoring of a PHP extension from "Zephir" language to a cleaner C language output. I came across the fact that the extension uses a lot of "static" zend_string. No I want to convert those static zend_string into the intern string. From what I read today based on PHP internal book website and PHP Source online, calling a Zen's new interest string function create a string whose value is registered into a hash table. And then on a request in it this or that send interned string is then retrieved from the hash table instead of creating a new Zen string. Apart from the fact that every every news and intern strings have an immutable ref count. My doubt is the following: * Does ref counting increments/decrements when you create a Zend string using the static keyword? * Assigning a new zend_string as interned zend_string, when the flag "IS_Interned_STRING" (if I remember correctly), the string is kinda garbage collected? (Do I need to free the string)? Thanks for your support. David.