How to track down tricky memory leak with fastMM?

Question

After upgrading a project from Delphi 2007 to Delphi 2009 I'm getting an Unknown memory leak, so far I've been tryin to track it down using fastMM, here is what fastMM stack trace reports:

A memory block has been leaked. The size is: 20

This block was allocated by thread 0x111C, and the stack trace (return addresses) 
  at the time was:
40339E [System.pas][System][@GetMem][3412] 534873 [crtl][_malloc]
56D1C4 [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][3918]
56D316 [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][3961]
56D5EE [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][4085]
562D48 [DBCommon.pas][DBCommon][TFilterExpr.PutExprNode][1583]
408E46 [System.pas][System][DynArraySetLength][20464]
56D5EE [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][4085]
408E92 [System.pas][System][@DynArraySetLength][20486]
528C1B [Forms.pas][Forms][TCustomForm.DoCreate][3260]
171A1A [GetRawStackTrace]

The block is currently used for an object of class: Unknown

The allocation number is: 302844

And sometimes I get this:

A memory block has been leaked. The size is: 20

This block was allocated by thread 0x111C, and the stack trace (return addresses) 
  at the time was:
40339E [System.pas][System][@GetMem][3412]
534873 [crtl][_malloc]
56D1C4 [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][3918]
56D316 [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][3961]
77DC921A [RtlAnsiStringToUnicodeString]
56D5EE [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][4085]
7726B8F5 [GetProcAddress]
7726B907 [GetProcAddress]
589B1E [ossrv.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][3163]
56D5EE [canex.cpp][MidasLib][DllGetDataSnapClassObject][4085]
408E92 [System.pas][System][@DynArraySetLength][20486]

The block is currently used for an object of class: Unknown

Is there some better way to figure out what really is causing the Memory leak?

Answer 1

This memory leak was being caused by a Delphi bug, QC #67709

It was fixed by the last Delphi 2009 update, no wonder I wasn't able to fix it.

Answer 2

As long as the size of the memory block leaked does not grow the longer/more your program is used, then it isn't a concern. If you have long lived objects that are only freed when you terminate the application it is the same as if you leaked them - all memory is reclaimed on termination (Unless of course they have handles resources beyond memory).

The memory leaks you want to be concerned with are the ones that accumulate over time or usage. If it is 20 bytes everytime then don't sweat it.