Memory leaks caused due to CoreFoundation Framework

Question

I am developing an iPhone application which mainly makes use of the Address Book and database. After fetching about 3000 contacts from the address book, I am attaching string tags to the contacts (5 for each). I am saving my tags in the database.

For Load testing purpose i have added 10,000 tags to the App. But during the load testing of my application, I observed some memory leaks which were not related to the Application code but represents a set of Instruction sets. Also Instruments showed Foundation as the responsible library for the Leak (Extensive use of NSString,NSDictionary,NSArray which belongs to the Foundation framework). My application crashes after 10 - 15 mins of usage.The Crash report mentions, application crashed due to low memory.

Memory profiling using CLANG shows zero leaks. How do i solve these memory leaks? Are these leaks the real culprit behind the crash? Are there any other tools available to check memory leaks?

Answer 1

I often find my leaks say they're caused by Core Foundation (or any other framework for that matter) but are really my own. With the exception of the Simulator, rarely will you find excessive leaking in the frameworks.

If you open up the detail panel to the right in Instruments you may find listed your App's methods in there. That will give you indication of where it could be coming from in your code. One leak can spring many other leaks, and you may have to find the top level culprit to get rid of the lower level ones.

You should not expect Clang to do anything but find the most obvious leaks. It's very handy, but that's it, just a helpful addition to compiling.