Question

I’m successfuly running assembly (exe) from byte array. My code is:

public static void Execute(byte[] assembly, string arg) {
     if (assembly[0x3c] == 0x80) { 
          object[] o = new object[] { new string[] { arg } };
          try {
              Assembly.Load(assembly).EntryPoint.Invoke(null, o);
          } catch (TargetInvocationException e) {
              throw e.InnerException;
          }
     } else {
          throw new Exception("File is not a valid .NET assembly.");
     }
}

All fine, but the executable keeps leaking memory. The original needs 6-10MB, this one after the run produces 40-60 and up to 145mb (and then drops down to 10 and loops again).

Why is this happening, what leaks memory and any ideas how to fix that?

Answer 1

It’s not leaking memory; you’re seeing the effects of garbage collection. Garbage collection can be deferred until some point in the future, when the system determines that it needs more memory; that’s what’s happening in your instance when the process usage suddenly drops.

Don’t worry about it; it’s perfectly normal. Moreover, it’s the way the system is designed; this behavior is not affecting your execution time or overall memory usage.