flipcode - Presenting A Memory Manager

Presenting A Memory Manager
Question submitted by n/a (12 September 2000)


	This entry is not a response to a question.


	This installment of the Ask Midnight column is not in response to a question, but rather a follow-up to the last question about memory management & tracking. I've spent the past week developing and testing a new industrial-grade memory manager. During this effort, I found three bugs in an application I thought to be bug-free (at least, as far as memory usage goes.) I had this confidence because I often run with BoundsChecker (as well as the memory tracking tools in the Microsoft libraries.) Neither of these tools was able to locate these particular bugs, so I assumed the bugs didn't actually exist. As it turns out, the memory manager presented here located them and told me exactly where to go to fix them. As a result, I now have a little more confidence in the application I was testing with, and even more confidence in my memory tracker. Here's what this memory tracker told me: I was never deallocating the frame buffer. Sounds simple but the fact is, neither BoundsChecker nor Microsoft's memory tracking library noticed this memory leak. I noticed that there was over a MEG of unused RAM in the memory report. By attaching a memory report dump to a key, I was able to see a snapshot of what memory was in use (every single allocation) and noticed that a particular block of allocated RAM contained a large amount of unused RAM within it. Going to the line in the source where the allocation took place, I found that I was allocating a z-buffer from legacy code and had forgot to remove the allocation when I removed the rest of the z-buffer code. When the application started up, the window would be bright green prior rendering the first frame. This was because the "unused memory" fill pattern used by the memory manager translates to bright green. Looking at the source, I found that I wasn't clearing the frame buffer after the allocation. Is your code bug-free? Take the Memory Manager challenge! I urge you to include this software in your projects as a test. If your projects have any size to them at all, or use memory in a multitude of various ways, then this memory tracker may very likely find bugs in your code that you never knew were there. Just include this software with your project, include the MMGR.H file in each of your source files and recompile. After each run, check for any MEM.LOG files in the project's directory. If you really want to test your software, simply edit MMGR.CPP and uncomment the STRESS_TEST macro. This will slow your allocations down a bit, but it's worth it. And finally, spend a couple minutes and read the comments at the top of the MMGR.CPP file. If this code helps you find bugs you never knew existed or helps you track down a tough bug, then please* visit this issue of Ask Midnight and leave a testimonial in the comments. I will periodically check them and may eventually release an updated version of this software based on your comments. Download The Memory Manager: [mmgr.zip (15k)] So go ahead. Take the challenge. I dare you. :) Response provided by Paul Nettle

This article was originally an entry in flipCode's Ask Midnight, a Question and Answer column with Paul Nettle that's no longer active.