Problem ?
Problem arises when you don’t get to know why my program dysfunctional , inspite of correct logic . The problem may be with memory handling or in the thread handling . Learning syntax is half part , gaining proficiency is another part .
What exactly is memory management ?
In C/C++ assigning memory & handling threads can PITA until one reach a level of experience . Let’s go by an example:
#include <stdlib.h>
void bad_memory(void){
int* array_alloc = malloc(20 * sizeof(int));
array_alloc[20] = 10 ;
}
int main(void){
bad_memory();
return 0 ;
}The above code has two errors . It doesn’t pops up during compilation and during execution . First one : assigning out of bound index of array_alloc a value i.e array_alloc[20] Second one : not freeing the allocated memory resulting in memory leak .
###Valgrind to rescue ! By definition : The Valgrind tool suite provides a number of debugging and profiling tools that help you make your programs faster and more correct. The most popular of these tools is called Memcheck. It can detect many memory-related errors that are common in C and C++ programs and that can lead to crashes and unpredictable behaviour.
To rescue onself run the executable using valgrind command
valgrind --leak-check=full ./a.outThe result is as following
valgrind --leak-check=full ./a.out
==25516== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==25516== Copyright (C) 2002-2011, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==25516== Using Valgrind-3.7.0 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==25516== Command: ./a.out
==25516==
==25516== Invalid write of size 4
==25516== at 0x400512: bad_memory (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516== by 0x400522: main (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516== Address 0x51f2068 is 0 bytes after a block of size 40 alloc'd
==25516== at 0x4C2B6CD: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-linux.so)
==25516== by 0x400505: bad_memory (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516== by 0x400522: main (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516==
==25516==
==25516== HEAP SUMMARY:
==25516== in use at exit: 40 bytes in 1 blocks
==25516== total heap usage: 1 allocs, 0 frees, 40 bytes allocated
==25516==
==25516== 40 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 1 of 1
==25516== at 0x4C2B6CD: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-linux.so)
==25516== by 0x400505: bad_memory (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516== by 0x400522: main (in /home/rooted/Documents/git-repos/workshop/code/a.out)
==25516==
==25516== LEAK SUMMARY:
==25516== definitely lost: 40 bytes in 1 blocks
==25516== indirectly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==25516== possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==25516== still reachable: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==25516== suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==25516==
==25516== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==25516== ERROR SUMMARY: 2 errors from 2 contexts (suppressed: 2 from 2)There are two errors : Heap error for invalid assign & Leaks relating lost memory .
Valgrind can also be misused to profile your code (pun intended ) Further Valgrind can also be used for Bounty programs (like google chrome).
Conclusion !
There are other tools for debugging like GDB which is very elaborate & pro-like . Apart from that Valgrind is there . As pointed out what’s better than finding out bugs as quickly without any pain .
Comments welcomed . Pros & cons ?