Tools for native memory leak analysis

Question

I am suspecting a native memory leak in my java code. Are there any tools which do native memory profiling? Also, does any tool support native memory analysis of a running java process?

Thanks!!

Edit: I have already tried Memory Validator and Purify but it seems they support only 32-bit processes. Is there some tool similar to the above ones which can simply attach to a running windows process and give us native memory analysis for that particular process?

Answer 1

The Troubleshooting guide for Java SE 6 with Hotspot VM contains a fairly elaborate section on techniques to aid in detecting native memory leaks. These include:

• wrapping all memory allocation and deallocation calls to track the amount of memory used.
• relying on platform specific support like the debug support provided by the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler or on mtrace (and MALLOC_TRACE) to debug memory allocations on Linux.
• using memory leak analysis tools like Rational Purify.

among others. Notably, the article mentions that no ideal solution exists for all platforms.

Also, consider using the -Xcheck:jni flag that appears to be available in most JVMs. The -X flag itself indicates that the flag is non-standard, but the flag appears to be available in the IBM JDK, Oracle JRockit R28, and even the Oracle/Sun JVM. Enabling the flag switches on a mode where wrappers are added around JNI calls, thereby allowing you to track illegal arguments passed to JVM calls as noted in the JNI programmers' guide and specification. While, it's use in detecting memory leaks is subjective, it would definitely help if you suspect that the leak is being caused due to invalid parameters being issued.