I was looking into Valgrind to help improve my C coding/debugging when I discovered it is only for Linux - I have no other need or interest in moving my OS to Linux so I was wondering if there is a equally good program for Windows.
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What kinds of debugging are you looking to do? Valgrind is quite a rich toolset, and the answers below point in all kinds of directions. With an emphasis on memory leak/allocation debugging.
– jakobengblom2
Maybe you can test the code on a virtual Linux machine inside your Windows, just when you need to check it. you can share the development folder between the virtual and non-virtual machine. that is, if the code is portable enough.
– Liran Orevi
30 Answers
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As jakobengblom2 pointed out, valgrind has a suit of tools. Depending which one you are talking about there are different windows counter parts. I will only mention OSS or free tools here.
1. MemCheck:
Dr. Memory. It is a relatively new tool, works very well on Windows 7. My favorite feature is that it groups the same leaks' allocation stacks in the report.
http://code.google.com/p/drmemory/
I have also used UMDH( http://support.microsoft.com/kb/268343 ) and found it quiet useful and easy to setup. It works from Win2000 to Win7.
AppVerifier is a must have swissknife for windows native code developers, its "memory" checker does similar job http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371695%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
2. Callgrind:
My favorite is verysleepy ( http://www.codersnotes.com/sleepy ) It is tiny but very useful and easy to use.
If you need more features, AMD CodeAnalyst™ Performance Analyzer is free: http://developer.amd.com/documentation/videos/pages/introductiontoamdcodeanalystperformanceanalyzer.aspx
Windows Performance Analysis tools is free from Microsoft, not very easy to use but can get the job done if you are willing to spend the time. http://blogs.microsoft.co.il/blogs/sasha/archive/2008/03/15/xperf-windows-performance-toolkit.aspx Download: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/performance/cc752957
3. Massif:
Similar(not quite exact match) free tools on windows are:
VMMap from sysinternals : http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/sysinternals/dd535533
!heap command in windbg : http://hacksoflife.blogspot.com/2009/06/heap-debugging-memoryresource-leak-with.html
4. Cachegrind:
Above mentioned Windows Performance Tools has certain level of L2 cache miss profiling capability but not quite as good and easy to use as Cachegrind.
5. DRD:
Haven't found anything free and as powerful on Windows yet, the only free tool for windows I can find that is slightly close is the "lock" checker in AppVerifier: http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd371695%28v=vs.85%29.aspx
31
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Why not use Valgrind + Wine to debug your Windows app? See http://wiki.winehq.org/Wine_and_Valgrind
(Chromium uses this to check the Windows version for memory errors; see build.chromium.org and look at the experimental or memory waterfalls, and search for wine.)
There's also Dr. Memory, see dynamorio.org/drmemory.html
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For Visual C++, try Visual Leak Detector. When I used it, it detected a memory leak from a new call and returned the actual line in source code of the leak. The latest release can be found at http://vld.codeplex.com/.
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Development environment for Windows you are using may contain its own tools. Visual Studio, for example, lets you detect and isolate memory leaks in your programs
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i would like to list some tool , hope will be useful
read this article for more detail
- Purify
- Bounds Checker
- Coverity (basically its a code analyzer but, it will catch memory leak in static )
- Glow Code
- dmalloc
- ccmalloc
- NJAMD
- YAMD
- Valgrind
- mpatrol
- Insure++
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In combination with Visual Studio I generally use Visual Leak Detector or simply _CrtDumpMemoryLeaks() which is a win32 api call. Both are nothing fancy but they get the job done.
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I had the chance to use Compuware DevPartner Studio in the past and that was really good, but it's quite expensive. A cheaper solution could be GlowCode, i just worked with a 5.x version and, despite some problems in attaching to a process i needed to debug, it worked quite well.
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Viusual Studio can help detecting memory leaks itself. See Microsoft Visual C++ Tips and Tricks -> "Memory Leaks" section. See also this post in SO
Although real tracing is only possible with the Team Edtion of Visual Studio.
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See the "Source Test Tools" link on the Software QA Testing and Test Tool Resources page for a list of similar tools.
I've used BoundsChecker,DevPartner Studio and Intel V-Tune in the past for profiling. I liked V-Tune the best; you could emulate various Intel chipsets and it would give you hints on how to optimize for that platform.
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Does Jochen Kalmbach's Memory Leak Detector qualify?
PS: The URL to the latest version is buried somewhere in the article's comment thread.
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Try Intel's Inspector XE product which can help you detect both memory and threading issues: http://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/intel-inspector-xe/
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More or less all Profilers include checking for memory leaks and show you the stack when the memory was allocated.
I can recommend Intels Parallel Inspector. Simple to use and no recompilation needed. The trial version runs for 30 days.
GlowCode and AtromatedQA also include such capabilites. They all offer free trials.
Compuware DevPartner (aka BoundsChecker) in Contrast needs a slowed down "instrumentation" recompile and the application also runs slower when checking for errors. And BoundsChecker can not work with 64 Bit evsrions at all. We gave up on that tool.
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The best tool I ever used is DevPartner BoundsChecker - it's not free but it has an evaluation period.
2
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Another memory tool for your list: Memory Validator.
Not free, but nowhere near as expensive as Purify or Boundschecker.
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If you're not afraid of mingw, here are some links (some might work with MSVC)... http://betterlogic.com/roger/?p=1140
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We are just completing a Memory Safety checking tool for Windows, that handles GCC and Micrsoft Visual C (not C++ yet), and are looking for Beta testers.
EDIT June 12, 2011: Not Beta anymore, now production for GCC and Microsoft Visual Studio C.
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I found this SF project today:
http://sourceforge.net/p/valgrind4win/wiki/Home/
They are porting valgrind to Windows. Probably in several years we will have a reliable valgrind on windows.
1
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Check out this question: Is there a good Valgrind substitute for Windows? . Though general substitute for valgrind is asked, it mainly discusses memory leak detectors and not race conditions detections.
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I used Insure++ which does excellent job in finding c++ memory leaks/corruptions and many other bugs like uninitialized variables, pointer errors, strings etc., It also does visual "Code coverage" and run time memory usage etc.. which give more confident on your code.. You can try it for trail version..
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You might want to read what Mozilla is doing regarding memory leaks. One tool in their toolbox is the Hans Boehm garbage collector used as memory leak detector.
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You can give a try to RuntimeChecker trial ot to IBM Purify trial..
A free solution would be to use the following code in Visual Studio:
#ifdef _DEBUG
#define new DEBUG_NEW
#endif
Just write this in the top of all your cpp files. This will detect memory leaks of your application whenc stopping debug run and list them in the output window. Double clicking on a memory leaks line will higlight you the line where memory is allocated and never released. This may help you : http://www.flipcode.com/archives/How_To_Find_Memory_Leaks.shtml
