Detecting Memory Leaks

Selecting Options for Memory Analysis

Stack traces can get quite large and confusing, and therefore, reading them from the bottom up can help. If the stack trace is not big enough or it is too big, select Tools > Options... > Analyzer. Define the length of the stack trace in the Backtrace frame count field.

Memcheck also reports uses of uninitialised values, most commonly with the message Conditional jump or move depends on uninitialised value(s). To determine the root cause of these errors, the Track origins of uninitialized memory check box is selected by default. You can deselect it to make Memcheck run faster.

Memcheck detects numerous problems in the system libraries, such as the C library, which come pre-installed with your OS. As you cannot easily fix them, you want to suppress them. Valgrind reads a list of errors to suppress at startup. A default suppression file is created by the ./configure script when the system is built.

You can write your own suppression files if parts of your project contain errors you cannot fix and you do not want to be reminded of them. Click Add in the Memory Analysis dialog to add the suppression files. For more information about writing suppression files, see Suppressing Errors in the Valgrind documentation.