Method and computer programming product for detecting memory leaks

Abstract

The invention relates to a method for detecting memory leaks produced by a program running on a computer, wherein during a program run, for each allocation of a memory region at least one information item concerning the performed allocation is entered in an allocation list and a check is made as to whether the allocation list contains a stored reference pattern of information that is typical for one or more memory leaks, and after a stored reference pattern is found the program run is paused, or a memory leak thus detected is associated with the region of the running program whose processing resulted in the most recent entry in the allocation list. The invention further relates to a computer programming product which carries out the method when the computer program is executed on a computer.

1 - 12 . (canceled) 
     
     
         13 . A method for detecting memory leaks produced by a computer program running on a computer comprising,
 create a first memory leak list that records memory allocations that were not de-allocated after a first run of the computer program, wherein the list records the position of each such memory allocation and its size;   during a second run of the computer program create a match list that records memory allocations matching one or more sequence and size patterns recorded in the first memory leak list;   create a second memory leak list that records memory allocations that were not de-allocated after the second run of the computer program, wherein the list records the position of each such memory allocation and its size;   identify entries on the match list that correspond to entries on the second memory leak list;   during a third run of the computer program using the match list and identified entries to detect the portions of the computer program that created the memory leak.   
     
     
         14 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the detection comprises recording a source code function that created the detected memory leak. 
     
     
         15 . The method of  claim 13  wherein the detection comprises pausing the running of the program at the point where the detected memory leak is allocated. 
     
     
         16 . A method for detecting memory leaks produced by a computer program running on a computer comprising,
 create a first memory leak list that records memory allocations that were not de-allocated after a first run of the computer program, wherein the list records the position of each such memory allocation and its size;   create a second memory leak list that records memory allocations that were not de-allocated after the second run of the computer program, wherein the list records the position of each such memory allocation and its size;   create a stored reference pattern list by identifying consecutive entries on the first and second memory leak lists that correspond to one another;   during a third run of the computer program using the stored reference pattern list to detect the portions of the computer program that created the memory leak.