Memory debugger

Program execution
General concepts
Code Translation Compiler Compile-time Optimizing compiler Intermediate representation (IR) Execution Runtime system Runtime Executable Interpreter Virtual machine
Types of code
Source code Object code Bytecode Machine code Microcode
Compilation strategies
Just-in-time (JIT) Tracing just-in-time Ahead-of-time (AOT) Transcompilation Recompilation
Notable runtimes
Android Runtime (ART) Common Language Runtime (CLR) & Mono crt0 HHVM Java virtual machine (JVM) Objective-C V8 Node.js PyPy Zend Engine
Notable compilers & toolchains
GNU Compiler Collection (GCC) LLVM Clang
v t e

A memory debugger also known as a runtime debugger^[1] is a debugger for finding software memory problems such as memory leaks and buffer overflows. These are due to bugs related to the allocation and deallocation of dynamic memory. Programs written in languages that have garbage collection, such as managed code, might also need memory debuggers, e.g. for memory leaks due to "living" references in collections.

Contents

• 
  1 Overview
  


• 
  2 Comparison to static analyzer
  


• 
  3 List of memory debugging tools
  


• 
  4 See also
  


• 
  5 References
  


• 
  6 External links
  

Overview

Memory debuggers work by monitoring memory access, allocations, and deallocation of memory. Many memory debuggers require applications to be recompiled with special dynamic memory allocation libraries, whose APIs are mostly compatible with conventional dynamic memory allocation libraries, or else use dynamic linking. Electric Fence is such a debugger which debugs memory allocation with malloc. Some memory debuggers (e.g. Valgrind) work by running the executable in a virtual machine-like environment, monitoring memory access, allocation and deallocation so that no recompilation with special memory allocation libraries is required.

Finding memory issues such as leaks can be extremely time consuming as they may not manifest themselves except under certain conditions. Using a tool to detect memory misuse makes the process much faster and easier.^[2]

As abnormally high memory utilization can be a contributing factor in software aging, memory debuggers can help programmers to avoid software anomalies that would exhaust the computer system memory, thus ensuring high reliability of the software even for long runtimes.

Comparison to static analyzer

Some static analysis tools can also help find memory errors. Memory debuggers operate as part of an application while it's running while static code analysis is performed by analyzing the code without executing it. These different techniques will typically find different instances of problems, and using them both together yields the best result.^[3]

List of memory debugging tools

This is a list of tools useful for memory debugging. A profiler can be used in conjunction with a memory debugger.

Name	OS	License	Languages	Technique
AddressSanitizer	Linux, Mac OS	Free/open source (LLVM)	C, C++.	Compile-time instrumentation (available in Clang and GCC) and specialized library
Allinea DDT	Linux, Blue Gene	Proprietary commercial	C, C++ and F90. Also for parallel programs on supercomputers	Runtime - through dynamic linking
AQtime	Windows (Visual Studio, Embarcadero IDEs)	Proprietary commercial	.NET, C++, Java, Silverlight, JScript, VBScript[4]	Runtime
Bcheck	Solaris
BoundsChecker	Windows (Visual Studio)	Proprietary commercial	C++	Runtime intercepts or compile-time
Daikon	Unix, Windows, Mac OS X[5]	Free/open source[6]	Java, C/C++, Perl, and Eiffel[5]	Runtime dynamic invariant detection
Debug_new	(general technique)	(general technique)	C++	Compile-time override
Deleaker	Windows	Proprietary commercial	C++, .Net	Runtime intercepts
dmalloc	Any	Free/open source	C	Compile-time override
DynamoRIO § Dr. Memory	Android, Linux, Windows	Free/open source (LGPL and BSD)	Any	Runtime intercepts
Electric Fence	Unix	Free/open source (GPL)	C, C++	Compile-time override
FASTMM4	Windows	Free/open source (GPL)	Delphi	Compile-time override
IBM Rational Purify	Unix, Windows	Proprietary commercial	C++, Java, .NET	Runtime
Insure++	Windows (Visual Studio plugin), Unix	Proprietary commercial	C, C++	source code instrumentation
Intel Inspector	Windows (Visual Studio)	Proprietary commercial	C, C++
libcwd	Linux (gcc)	Free/open source	C, C++	Compile-time override
libumem	Solaris	Bundled with Solaris		Link-time override
Memwatch	Any (programming library)	Free/open source	C	Compile-time override
mtrace	Various	Free/open source (LGPL)	GNU C library	Built-in, outputs accesses
MTuner	Various	Free	C, C++	Runtime intercepts, Link-time override (MSVC, Clang and GCC), Leak detection
Oracle Solaris Studio (formerly Sun Studio Runtime Checking)	Linux, Solaris	Proprietary freeware	C, C++, Fortran
OLIVER (APT international)	MVS, MVS/EXA, DOS/VSE	Proprietary software	IBM Assembler	Runtime intercepts, Hypervisor - Type 2
TotalView	Unix, Mac OS X	Proprietary commercial	C, C++, Fortran	Runtime
Valgrind § Memcheck	Linux, Mac OS, Android	Free/open source (GPL)	Any	Runtime intercepts
WinDbg	Windows	Proprietary freeware	C, C++, .NET, Python	Runtime

See also

• 
  Software Testing portal
  

• Profiling (computer programming)


• List of performance analysis tools


• Debugger


• Runtime error detection


• Software testing


• Software engineering


• Computer programming


• Core dump

References

• Michael C. Daconta: C++ Pointers and Dynamic Memory Management, John Wiley & Sons, .mw-parser-output cite.citation{font-style:inherit}.mw-parser-output .citation q{quotes:"""""""'""'"}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-free a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/65/Lock-green.svg/9px-Lock-green.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-limited a,.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-registration a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d6/Lock-gray-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-gray-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .citation .cs1-lock-subscription a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/aa/Lock-red-alt-2.svg/9px-Lock-red-alt-2.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration{color:#555}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription span,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration span{border-bottom:1px dotted;cursor:help}.mw-parser-output .cs1-ws-icon a{background:url("//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4c/Wikisource-logo.svg/12px-Wikisource-logo.svg.png")no-repeat;background-position:right .1em center}.mw-parser-output code.cs1-code{color:inherit;background:inherit;border:inherit;padding:inherit}.mw-parser-output .cs1-hidden-error{display:none;font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-visible-error{font-size:100%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-maint{display:none;color:#33aa33;margin-left:0.3em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-subscription,.mw-parser-output .cs1-registration,.mw-parser-output .cs1-format{font-size:95%}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-left,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-left{padding-left:0.2em}.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-right,.mw-parser-output .cs1-kern-wl-right{padding-right:0.2em}
  ISBN 0-471-04998-0
  


• 
  Andrew Koenig: C Traps and Pitfalls, Addison-Wesley,
  ISBN 0-201-17928-8
  

1. 
   ^ Globus, A; Raible, E (July 1994). "Fourteen ways to say nothing with scientific visualization". IEEE Computer. 27 (7): 86–88. doi:10.1109/2.299418. Retrieved August 24, 2017.
   


2. 
   ^ "Review: 5 memory debuggers for Linux coding". Retrieved August 24, 2017.
   


3. 
   ^ "Dynamic Analysis vs. Static Analysis". Retrieved August 24, 2017.
   


4. 
   ^ http://smartbear.com/products/qa-tools/application-performance-profiling/profiling-managed-code
   


5. 
   ^ ^ab http://groups.csail.mit.edu/pag/daikon/download/doc/daikon.html
   


6. 
   ^ http://groups.csail.mit.edu/pag/daikon/download/doc/daikon.html#License
   

External links

• "Hunting Memory Bugs" by Ivan Skytte Jørgensen


• "Comparison of Free Memory Checkers" by Jean-Philippe Martin^{[full citation needed]}
  

v t e Memory management
Memory management as a function of an operating system
Manual memory management	Static memory allocation C dynamic memory allocation new and delete (C++)
Virtual memory	Demand paging Page table Paging Virtual memory compression
Hardware	Memory management unit Translation lookaside buffer
Garbage collection	Boehm garbage collector Concurrent mark sweep collector Finalizer Garbage Garbage-first collector Mark-compact algorithm Reference counting Tracing garbage collection Strong reference Weak reference
Memory segmentation	Protected mode Real mode Virtual 8086 mode x86 memory segmentation
Memory safety	Buffer overflow Buffer over-read Dangling pointer Stack overflow
Issues	Fragmentation Memory leak Unreachable memory
Other	Automatic variable International Symposium on Memory Management Region-based memory management

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