Memory Debuggers - Revision history

Erh: valgrind doesn't use source code

2011-08-10T20:38:15Z

valgrind doesn't use source code

Jsujjava: Add Category Development Tools

2011-05-13T17:52:49Z

Add Category Development Tools

Tim Bird: add better header

2010-07-15T23:37:10Z

add better header

Tim Bird: /* Tutorials or Overviews */

2010-07-15T23:30:16Z

‎Tutorials or Overviews

Tim Bird: remove []

2010-07-15T23:29:55Z

remove []

Tim Bird: /* mtrace */ link to wikipedia article

2010-07-15T23:29:34Z

‎mtrace: link to wikipedia article

Tim Bird: move article to bottom

2010-07-15T23:27:01Z

move article to bottom

Tim Bird: add information about memory debuggers (moved from Toolbox page)

2010-07-15T23:23:09Z

add information about memory debuggers (moved from Toolbox page)

New page

Several tools exist for finding memory leaks or for reporting individual memory allocations
of a program.

* [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6059 Memory Leak Detection in Embedded Systems] by Cal Erickson, Linux Journal, September 2002
** This mentions mentions mtrace, memwatch and dmalloc

=== Electric Fence ===
See [[Electric Fence]]

=== mtrace ===
mtrace is a builtin part of glibc which allows detection of memory leaks caused by unbalanced malloc/free calls. To use it, the program is modified to call mtrace() and muntrace() to start and stop tracing of allocations. A log file is created, which can then be scanned by the 'mtrace' Perl script. The 'mtrace' program lists only unbalanced allocations. If source is available it can
show the source line where the problem occurred. mtrace can be used on both C and C++ programs.

=== memwatch ===
memwatch is a program that not only detects malloc and free errors but also reads and writes beyond the allocated space (buffer over and under-runs). To use it, you modify the source to include
the memwatch code, which provides replacements for malloc and free.

Some things that memwatch does not catch are writing to an address that has been freed and reading data from outside the allocated memory.

=== mpatrol ===
mpatrol appears to be like memwatch.

See http://mpatrol.sourceforge.net/

=== dmalloc ===
"The debug memory allocation or dmalloc library has been designed as a drop in replacement for the system's malloc, realloc, calloc, free and other memory management routines while providing powerful debugging facilities configurable at runtime. These facilities include such things as memory-leak tracking, fence-post write detection, file/line number reporting, and general logging of statistics."

This library can be used without modifying the existing program, and uses environment variables
to control it's operation and set of issues to log.

It's home page is at: http://dmalloc.com/

See Cal Erickson's article (link above, page 2) for information about using this system.

=== dbgmem ===
dbgmem looks like another dynamic library replacement tool, similar to dmalloc (but possibly having less features)

See http://dbgmem.sourceforge.net/

=== valgrind ===
valgrind does dynamic source code modification to instrument the program, and provides a number
of memory problem detection tools and profiling tools. Unfortunately, as of July 2010 it is
only available for x86 and ppc64 architecture platforms.

See [[Valgrind]]

← Older revision		Revision as of 17:52, 13 May 2011
Line 47:		Line 47:
	* [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6059 Memory Leak Detection in Embedded Systems] by Cal Erickson, Linux Journal, September 2002		* [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6059 Memory Leak Detection in Embedded Systems] by Cal Erickson, Linux Journal, September 2002
	** This article mentions mtrace, memwatch and dmalloc		** This article mentions mtrace, memwatch and dmalloc
		+
		+	[[Category:Development Tools]]

@@ Line 49: / Line 49: @@
 == Tutorials or Overviews ==
 * [http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/6059 Memory Leak Detection in Embedded Systems] by Cal Erickson, Linux Journal, September 2002
-** This mentions mentions mtrace, memwatch and dmalloc
+** This article mentions mtrace, memwatch and dmalloc

@@ Line 9: / Line 9: @@
 show the source line where the problem occurred. mtrace can be used on both C and C++ programs.
-See the [[http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtrace mtrace wikipedia article]] for more information.
+See the [http://wikipedia.org/wiki/Mtrace mtrace wikipedia article] for more information.
 === memwatch ===

@@ Line 35: / Line 35: @@
 === valgrind ===
-valgrind does dynamic source code modification to instrument the program, and provides a number
+valgrind does dynamic binary instrumentation to analyze the program, and provides a number
 of memory problem detection tools and profiling tools.  Unfortunately, as of July 2010 it is
 only available for x86 and ppc64 architecture platforms.

@@ Line 1: / Line 1: @@
 Several tools exist for finding memory leaks or for reporting individual memory allocations
-of a program.
+of a program.  These tools help analyze memory usage patterns, detect unbalanced allocations and frees, report buffer over- and under-runs, etc.
-−
-−
-−
 === mtrace ===

@@ Line 2: / Line 2: @@
 of a program.
-=== Electric Fence ===
-See [[Electric Fence]]
 === mtrace ===
@@ Line 31: / Line 28: @@
 It's home page is at: http://dmalloc.com/
-See Cal Erickson's article (link above, page 2) for information about using this system.
+See Cal Erickson's article (link below, page 2) for information about using this system.
 === dbgmem ===
@@ Line 44: / Line 41: @@
 See [[Valgrind]]