Question

Can Instruments be used as a replacement for

valgrind

If one wants to check for memory leaks using instruments can it be used from the terminal?

Answer 1

Instruments has a command line interface:

$ instruments -h

Example usage:

$ instruments -t mytemplate -a myapp.app

For leaks, try the Leaks.tracetemplate. To see all available templates, use -s.

There is another executable, just called leaks. You can inspect any running application by giving leaks its PID:

$ echo $$
620

$ leaks 620
leaks Report Version:  2.0 
Process:         bash [620]
Path:            /bin/bash
Load Address:    0x100000000
...
Process 620: 37983 nodes malloced for 1123 KB
Process 620: 0 leaks for 0 total leaked bytes.

Read more about leaks in the Apple developer reference library.