C++11 memory release in variable reassignment

Question

I am trying to learn more about how memory is handled in C++, and I have a question about how memory is released when a variable is reassigned. To monitor memory consumption, I have a (Linux-specific) function CheckMem() which calls pmap to see how much memory the process is using. I then simply create a vector of size 1, reassign it to a vector of size one million, then reassign it again to size 1, and observe how the memory changes.

#include <iostream>
#include <vector>
#include <sstream>
#include <cstdio>
#include <unistd.h>

using namespace std;

void CheckMem()
{
  char cmdstring[100],outbuf[500],buf[100];
  sprintf(cmdstring,"pmap -x %d | tail -1",getpid()); 
  FILE* output = popen(cmdstring,"r");
  fgets(outbuf,500,output);
  size_t kb,rss,dirty;
  istringstream ss(outbuf);
  ss >> cmdstring >> buf >> kb >> rss >> dirty;
  cout << "RSS: " << rss << " KB" << endl;
}

int main()
{
 vector<double> vd(1);
 CheckMem();
 vd = vector<double>(1000000);
 CheckMem();
 vd = vector<double>(1);
 CheckMem();
 return 0;
}

If I compile with g++ (gcc version 4.8.4), I get the following output:

RSS: 1184 KB
RSS: 9128 KB
RSS: 9136 KB

It appears that the memory used for the large vector (1 million doubles ~ 8 MB) is not released when the vector is reassigned to size 1. However, if I compile with the flag -std=c++11, then the output changes:

RSS: 1180 KB
RSS: 9112 KB
RSS: 1300 KB

Now the memory appears to be released by the reassignment. Does the C++11 standard somehow treat memory differently for reassignments?

Answer 1

More than likely the implementers of the library are reusing the capacity of the vector as long as it is greater than the capacity of the vector you are assigning to it. This way they save a memory allocation.

Starting in C++11 we have move assignment so when you compile with -std=c++11 instead of reusing the capacity the temporary vector is moved into the existing vector and the content of the original vector are moved into the temporary. At then end of the expression the temporary is destroyed and you now have a vector with a smaller capacity.

If you want to shrink the capacity of the vector you should check out: reduce the capacity of an stl vector