Home/ Questions/Q 7760145
In Process

The Archive Base Latest Questions

Editorial Team
  • 0
Asked: 2026-06-01T13:48:22+00:00

I have a very simple piece of code: #include <stdio.h> #include <glib.h> int main(int

  • 0

I have a very simple piece of code:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <glib.h>

int main(int argc, char * argv[])
{
  const char * path = "/a/b/c/d/e/f/g/h/";
  gchar ** parts = NULL;
  int i;

  parts = g_strsplit( (const gchar *) path, "/", 0 );

  for ( i = 0; parts[i]; i++ ) {
    if (parts[i][0] == '\0') {
      continue;
    }
    printf("part: %s\n", parts[i]);
  }

  g_strfreev( parts );
  return 0;
}

However, when I run this code through Valgrind, I get a bunch of ‘still reachable’ blocks:

==12924== 
==12924== HEAP SUMMARY:
==12924==     in use at exit: 4,252 bytes in 8 blocks
==12924==   total heap usage: 19 allocs, 11 frees, 4,358 bytes allocated
==12924== 
==12924== 240 bytes in 1 blocks are still reachable in loss record 1 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04820: memalign (vg_replace_malloc.c:581)
==12924==    by 0x4A048D7: posix_memalign (vg_replace_malloc.c:709)
==12924==    by 0x36A8255F87: ??? (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825680B: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== 252 bytes in 1 blocks are still reachable in loss record 2 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04A28: calloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:467)
==12924==    by 0x36A8241707: g_malloc0 (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8255742: ??? (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825669D: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== 504 bytes in 1 blocks are still reachable in loss record 3 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04A28: calloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:467)
==12924==    by 0x36A8241707: g_malloc0 (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8255722: ??? (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825669D: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== 504 bytes in 1 blocks are still reachable in loss record 4 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04A28: calloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:467)
==12924==    by 0x36A8241707: g_malloc0 (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825578B: ??? (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825669D: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== 720 bytes in 3 blocks are still reachable in loss record 5 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04820: memalign (vg_replace_malloc.c:581)
==12924==    by 0x4A048D7: posix_memalign (vg_replace_malloc.c:709)
==12924==    by 0x36A8255F87: ??? (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8256841: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== 2,032 bytes in 1 blocks are still reachable in loss record 6 of 6
==12924==    at 0x4A04A28: calloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:467)
==12924==    by 0x36A8241707: g_malloc0 (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8256642: g_slice_alloc (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A8257DBD: g_slist_prepend (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x36A825AB15: g_strsplit (in /lib64/libglib-2.0.so.0.2200.5)
==12924==    by 0x4005C8: main (strsplit.c:10)
==12924== 
==12924== LEAK SUMMARY:
==12924==    definitely lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==12924==    indirectly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==12924==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==12924==    still reachable: 4,252 bytes in 8 blocks
==12924==         suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==12924== 
==12924== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==12924== ERROR SUMMARY: 0 errors from 0 contexts (suppressed: 6 from 6)

My question is: did I not clean up properly or are these errors something that can be safely ignored?

Thanks!

Share

Leave an answer

You must login to add an answer.

Need An Account,

1 Answer

  1. Editorial Team

    From valgrind documentation,

    Because there are different kinds of leaks with different severities,
    an interesting question is this: which leaks should be counted as true
    “errors” and which should not?

    Definitely lost and possibly lost blocks are counted as true “errors”.
    Indirectly lost and still reachable blocks are not counted as true
    “errors”, even if –show-reachable=yes is specified and they are
    printed; this is because such blocks don’t need direct fixing by the
    programmer.

    So you can safely ignore these errors as these blocks will be anyways re-claimed at program exit.

    Also read this SO thread which discussed Valgrind memory errors in detail

    Still Reachable Leak detected by Valgrind

    • 0