LeakTracer - trace and analyze memory leaks in C++ programs

LeakTracer is a small tool I wrote when checking a C++ program for memory leaks. I couldn't get dmalloc to display what I wanted, and I just saw the __builtin_return_address gcc-extension mentioned.

To use LeakTracer, run your program using the provided LeakCheck script. It uses the LD_PRELOAD feature to "overlay" some functions on top of your functions (no recompile needed). If your platform does not support LD_PRELOAD, you can add the LeakTracer.o object file to the objects in your Makefile and run your application.

LeakTracer uses gdb to print out the exact line where the memory was allocated and not freed - this of course means you have to free all dynamically allocated data. LeakTracer also overrides the global operator new and operator delete - this will give problems if you override them as well.

LeakTracer traces only new/new[] and delete calls - it does not look at malloc/free/realloc.

Read the full README file included in the package for more information.

Availability

LeakTracer source: ( 10K) v2.4 LeakTracer.tar.gz

LeakTrace works on my Linux system and has been reported to work on Solaris as well as HP-UX. Because of its simplicity it has gained some surprising popularity and has seen use in e.g. KDE and Mozilla.

License: Public Domain (do with it whatever you want).

EXTENDED VERSION: Michael Gopshtein has completely rewritten LeakTracer to make it more efficient and flexible, monitor specific threads and display the ful stack trace. Download LeakTracer-mg.tar.gz.

LeakTracer is now part of Debian (testing/unstable), just apt-get install leaktracer, courtesy of Yann Dirson.