Question

If I want to check a program for memory leaks, what method should I use to go about this?
What software is available and how do you use that software? I’d like to see if there is a memory leak occuring in some code I have here and I’m not really sure how to check it.

Thanks!

Answer 1

It depends on the language you’re trying to profile.

There are C profilers that will replace the default memory allocators with instrumented ones, and probably a number of newer, better techniques – it’s been a long time since I’ve used them. Take a look at this question.

For .Net, Red Gate makes a good profiler – I’ve used it, and it’s well worth it.

I’m not sure what’s available for java – a quick search indicates there are a couple of open source profilers.

I’m also not sure what’s available for javascript, though I’m sure they exist.