Please Recommend Some Memory Leak Detection Tools

[ryan47]

Hello all~
Recently, I tried to find some useful and easy-to-use tools to detect memory leaking.
Since I implemented a plug-in for viewport renderer with Nvidia Cg and OpenGL,
therefore, it's required that the detector should be able to detect the leaking of them.

Some people in GameDev recommend Visual Leak Detector, it's really nice with native C++ and OpenGL.
However, when I apply it for my maya plug-in, it seems to get hooked somewhere in debugging mode.
Has anyone ever used this tool? Would you please share your experience?
or If you have used any better detector, please share with us. Thank you!!

[garion-mail]

Hi Ryan47,

Rational Purify is a great tool:
http://www-306.ibm.com/software/awdtools/purify/

Then there is BoundsChecker ofcourse:
http://www.compuware.com/products/devpartner/visualc.htm

Otherwise if you use Visual Studio you can come a long way with simply using the VC memory reporting system. I use my debug macro for dynamic memory allocation (newd):

#define CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#include
#include
#define newd new(_NORMAL_BLOCK, __FILE__, __LINE__)

And at initialization of the app:
_CrtSetDbgFlag ( _CRTDBG_ALLOC_MEM_DF | _CRTDBG_LEAK_CHECK_DF );

This makes VC report the leak size, the allocation location (if available) etc.

Good luck!

[ryan47]

Thanks a lot, Garion!
They seem wonderful, I'll give them a shot!! Thank you!!

[vhof]

Can I continue this subject?

I also found vld unusefull with Maya.
Can someone recommend other methods for leak detection?

#define newd new(_NORMAL_BLOCK, __FILE__, __LINE__) doesn't work for me when I use it in my plugin...

Secondly here is an example of a small empty plugin where leaks are detected using _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks

CODE
#define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#define CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#include
#include

#include

DeclareSimpleCommand( myCmd, "", "8.5");

MStatus myCmd::doIt( const MArgList& args )
{
    MStatus stat = MS::kSuccess;

    setResult( "myCmd command executed!\n" );

    _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks();

    return stat;
}

And last thing - (if anyone knows) - the MSDN says that #define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC will cause dumping of lines and filenames where the leaks were detected - this doesn't work for me too...

Thanks....

[katisss]

I read this tutorial but didnt try.
Will this technique work with maya ?
http://www.andynicholas.com/thezone/index....3&curpage=1

[ryan47]

Hi valk:

Have you invoked _CrtSetDbgFlag within initializePlugin(in the macro DeclareSimpleCommand)? The leaking information would be displayed in the output panel after you finish the debugging routine(F5, if you use VC).

Hope this helps~

Ryan47