Re: memory leak in free()

From: Paul Allen <nospam_at_ugcs.caltech.edu> Date: Wed, 14 Jun 2006 10:53:52 -0700 · This archive was generated by hypermail 2.4.0 : Wed May 19 2021 - 11:38:57 UTC

>From Jason Evans <jasone_at_freebsd.org>, Wed, Jun 14, 2006 at 10:35:03AM -0700:
> This is on a 32-bit system, right?  If so, what's happening is that the 
> brk-managed space (data segment) is being fragmented, such that the 
> address space isn't returned to the OS.  However, this is not really a 
> memory leak, since madvise() is called in order to let the kernel know 
> that the unused space need not be swapped out.

And in particular this should manifest itself as 'RES' declining but 'SIZE'
in top remaining unchanged.  Until an over-commit hating individual manages
to get a patch into the tree, this should not be a concern at all.

                             Paul