I've got the dmalloc online docs and I'm trying to understand how to
find a memory leak. Here is my situation.

I'm using a library called Swarm and I've compiled it with dmalloc
support. The dmalloc logfile correctly identifies the sources of memory
leaks as a file called Zone.m in the Swarm library. Zone.m has to an
Objective-C method called "allocBlock:" which is a 'wrapper' around
malloc. I call allocBlock: in several parts of my code, and so the
unfreed memory emanates from Zone.m. Since I make many different calls
in different files on that method in Zone.m, I really need to do the
followup search for memory leaks.

In the dmalloc guide section "Tracking down Non-Freed Memory" I get the
idea to do this. First, My dmalloc is compiled with the default
STORE_SEEN_COUNT on, so my logfile looks like this:

940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x8582188|s679' (32 bytes) from
'Zone.m:33'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x85821c8|s1' (32 bytes) from 'Zone.m:33'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x8582208|s1' (32 bytes) from 'Zone.m:33'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x8582248|s167' (32 bytes) from
'ra=0x4036ecb7'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x8582288|s1279' (32 bytes) from
'ra=0x4036ecb7'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x85822c8|s11' (32 bytes) from
'Zone.m:33'
940349216: 302075: not freed: '0x8582308|s85' (32 bytes) from
'Zone.m:33'

So I've got some unidentified leaks and some in Zone.m. In fact, I seem
to have thousands of them.

So I try to follow dmalloc the guide and start a new bash and use the
command:

dmalloc -l logfile -i 100 low -a 0x8582188:679

(It seems like I have to start bash again each time, or else the dmalloc
error log does not get created...)

Then I ran the program under gdb with "break dmalloc_error".

So when I hit this break point, I do "bt" to see where the program was
when that particular memory got allocated.

Now, the questions:
1. Am I supposed to repeat this procedure for every leak in the logfile?
--run the program, look at the log--rerun the dmalloc command in the
shell, then run the program under the debugger. I don't mean to seem
lazy, but is there no more easier way?

2. I wonder if dmalloc might give false warnings about memory allocated
in one file that is freed in another. For example, if a function
returns a pointer to some memory allocation, which is used in another
file, and then freed there. It seems like some of the things that I
think I'm freeing are showing up in the logfile as unfreed. I admit
readily my code may be wrong, but I'm just asking to make sure dmalloc
handles this possibility.

Thanks in advance
--
Paul E. Johnson email: pauljohn@...
Dept. of Political Science http://lark.cc.ukans.edu/~pauljohn
University of Kansas Office: (785) 864-9086
Lawrence, Kansas 66045 FAX: (785) 864-5700