Question

I run createNewBoard which calls createNewMatrix and the I exit the program, and I have a memory leak I can’t find. Here’s the code

BoardP createNewBoard(int width, int high)
{
    BoardP board = (BoardP) malloc(sizeof(Board));

    if (board == NULL)
    {
        reportError(MEM_OUT);
        return NULL;
    }
    board->height = high;
    board->width = width;
    board->matrix = createNewMatrix(width,high);
    printf("%c",board->matrix[1][1]);
    if (board->matrix == NULL)
    {
        reportError(MEM_OUT);
        freeBoard(board);
    return NULL;
    }
return board;
}

static char** createNewMatrix(int width, int height){
    char** newMatrix = (char**) calloc(height,sizeof(char*));
    int i;
    for (i=0; i<height; i++)
    {
        newMatrix[i] = (char*) calloc(width,sizeof(char)); //LINE 71
        if (newMatrix[i] == NULL)
        {
            int j;
            for (j=0; j<i; j++)
            {
                free(newMatrix[j]);
            }
            free(newMatrix);
            return NULL;
        }
    }
    return newMatrix;
 }

It is driving me crazy. All I do is to create a pointer to Board struct (which holds to integers and a two dimensional pointer array) and I have a memory leak. Here’s the message:

==10436== HEAP SUMMARY:
==10436==     in use at exit: 100 bytes in 10 blocks
==10436==   total heap usage: 12 allocs, 2 frees, 196 bytes allocated
==10436== 
==10436== 100 bytes in 10 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 1 of 1
==10436==    at 0x4C2380C: calloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:467)
==10436==    by 0x4008C6: createNewMatrix (Board.c:71)
==10436==    by 0x40081E: createNewBoard (Board.c:55)
==10436==    by 0x4007C6: createNewDefaultBoard (Board.c:37)
==10436==    by 0x400F0C: main (PlayBoard.c:11)
==10436== 
==10436== LEAK SUMMARY:
==10436==    definitely lost: 100 bytes in 10 blocks
==10436==    indirectly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==10436==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==10436==    still reachable: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==10436==         suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks

It points me to line 71, which calls calloc for a line in the matrix. When the program exits it calls freeBoard:

void freeBoard(BoardP board)
{
    if (board != NULL)
    {
        if(board->matrix != NULL)
        {
            free(board->matrix);
        }
        free(board);
    }
}

Any ideas why I have a memory leak? Thanks!

Answer 1

You have to free the individual lines, before freeing matrix.

for (i=0; i<height; i++)
{
    free(board->matrix[i]);
}