C#.NET testing for memory leaks. Quick question!

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.NET3.5

I am testing for memory leaks. I am going to let my program post(adds string to cache)/read(delete string from cache) for a long period of time to see if the memory accumulates or becomes study at a certain amount.

So I am checking the totalmemory from the System.GC.GetTotalMemory() to see how much memory I am using.

But I don't know if I should set it to true or false to allow the method to wait for garbage collection.

Which should I do? Also is there other good ways to test for memory leaks, or system resource leaks?

Posted 14-Jul-11 13:48pm

Member 8015046

Updated 14-Jul-11 13:49pm

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Dave Kreskowiak · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-14T16:23:00

Solution 1

What you're doing will not give you accurate results. You have to use a profiler to do that and/or PerfMon (Performance Monitor) and the .NET Framework memory counters to get this data. You can find PerfMon by clicking on Start -> Run -> type Perfmon.msc.

Posted 14-Jul-11 16:23pm

Dave Kreskowiak

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Member 8015046 15-Jul-11 11:53am

When I do performance check, if things climb up linearly. Does that mean it is bad? Like for example both Gen 0 and Gen 1 climb up consistantly.

Dave Kreskowiak 15-Jul-11 18:05pm

If it increases by 2000 bytes, which is NOTHING, every 1,000 method calls, you might want to test it considerably more and see what happens when you call the methods in question over 1,000,000 times. 2,000 bytes is a very tiny drop in the bucket that can be attributed to .NET CLR house keeping. You need a much larger sample size to determine if there actually a leak.

Member 8015046 15-Jul-11 18:53pm

Using the performance monitor. Gen 0 Collection and Gen 1 Collection seems to be increasing linearly by 3 per sec. I think it's 3 byte. Over 90,000 methods.

skv_lviv · Accepted Answer · 2011-07-14T18:26:00

Solution 2

But still, if you want to use GetTotalMemory method. I think you should allow full garbage collection, since you are want to know whether you forgot to free some objects (it maybe freed by you, but not by GC, since it waits for appropriate moment), and not whether garbage collector freed it to this moment.

Posted 14-Jul-11 18:26pm

skv_lviv

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johannesnestler 15-Jul-11 5:47am

I agree. But as Dave Kreskowiak said, this numbers won't be very useful...

skv_lviv 15-Jul-11 6:11am

Generally, I agree with what Dave Kreskowiak wrote. And, yes, this isn't accurate number, and it shouldn't be treated like something accurate, even MSDN says "Retrieves the number of bytes currently THOUGHT to be allocated". However who said that this number cannot be used as some indicator? If this number grows significantly when it is not supposed to do, this means that you have memory leak without using other more accurate methods. When this number is stable, you may expect that your application works fine and may try to use other methods to additionally verify this.

Member 8015046 15-Jul-11 11:09am

I think it does have a memory leak. when I put it on true, every 1000 methods it increases by 2000 bytes >.<