18 Finding Memory Problems with gnatmem

gnatmem, is a tool that monitors dynamic allocation and deallocation activity in a program, and displays information about incorrect deallocations and possible sources of memory leaks. Gnatmem provides three type of information:

• General information concerning memory management, such as the total number of allocations and deallocations, the amount of allocated memory and the high water mark, i.e. the largest amount of allocated memory in the course of program execution.
• Backtraces for all incorrect deallocations, that is to say deallocations which do not correspond to a valid allocation.
• Information on each allocation that is potentially the origin of a memory leak.

The gnatmem command has two modes. It can be used with gdb or with instrumented allocation and deallocation routines. The later mode is called the GMEM mode. Both modes produce the very same output.

• Running gnatmem (GDB Mode)
• Running gnatmem (GMEM Mode)
• Switches for gnatmem
• Examples of gnatmem Usage
• GDB and GMEM Modes
• Implementation Note