std::string operator+() memory leak?

Question

I'm quite worry because I wrote a little application and it seems that there is a memory leak if I believe valgrind (What I actually do):

==9321== 251 bytes in 7 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 1 of 1
==9321==    at 0x402569A: operator new(unsigned int) (vg_replace_malloc.c:255)
==9321==    by 0x40D3D05: std::string::_Rep::_S_create(unsigned int, unsigned int, std::allocator<char> const&) (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==9321==    by 0x40D4977: std::string::_Rep::_M_clone(std::allocator<char> const&, unsigned int) (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==9321==    by 0x40D57AC: std::string::reserve(unsigned int) (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==9321==    by 0x40D5EE6: std::string::operator+=(char) (in /usr/lib/libstdc++.so.6.0.13)
==9321==    by 0x804E113: xl2::TextParser::getNextLfLine() (TextParser.cpp:162)
==9321==    by 0x804BFD5: xl2::UsbTree::parseStringInfo(xl2::TextParser&, std::string&, std::string&) (UsbTree.cpp:362)
==9321==    by 0x804B881: xl2::UsbTree::parseDevicesFile(std::string) (UsbTree.cpp:204)
==9321==    by 0x804B34E: xl2::UsbTree::updateTree() (UsbTree.cpp:70)
==9321==    by 0x804E2E4: scan(std::string) (testUsbTree.cpp:75)
==9321==    by 0x804E6CC: executeCommand(std::string) (testUsbTree.cpp:132)
==9321==    by 0x804E8F6: hushLoop() (testUsbTree.cpp:153)

Here is the function in question :

/**
 * Returns the next line separated by UNIX style LF
 * @return The next line separated by UNIX style LF
 */
std::string TextParser::getNextLfLine()
{
    std::string line;   // The builded line

    while(this->hasMoreToken())
    {
        line += this->m_pText[this->m_iTokenLocation++];

        // Check if we have just seen a CR/LF character
        if(this->m_pText[this->m_iTokenLocation - 1] == '\n')
            return line;
    }

    return line;
}

The programm terminates correctly by leaving the main funciton (no call to exit()).

I just don't understand why there is a memory leak. As my string is copied in the stack and the original string is supposed to be cleaned when the function is left, right? Or the error could be higher? At top level I also assign the returned value to a local variable that is then put as field into an object (by copy) ...

So I was wondering if the leak comes from the standard library or valgrind what would be really surprising!

Any pointers to not leaked memory is strongly appreciated :-p!

Answer 1

To quote Valgrind FAQ

With GCC 2.91, 2.95, 3.0 and 3.1, compile all source using the STL with -D__USE_MALLOC. Beware! This was removed from GCC starting with version 3.3.

With GCC 3.2.2 and later, you should export the environment variable GLIBCPP_FORCE_NEW before running your program.

With GCC 3.4 and later, that variable has changed name to GLIBCXX_FORCE_NEW.

Also discussed in GCC FAQ