I am trying to use _crtBreakAlloc
in the Watch window as suggested in this link, but the value line says that 'identifier "_crtBreakAlloc" is unidentified' and it simply does not work.
What am I doing wrong? I'm using Visual Studio by the way.
An example of code:
#define _CRTDBG_MAP_ALLOC
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <crtdbg.h>
#include <malloc.h>
int main()
{
int *arr = (int*)malloc(10 * sizeof(int)); //breakpoint here
free(arr);
return 0;
}
I then write _crtBreakAlloc into the Name field of the Watch window and hit enter when encountering the breakpoint.
The primary tools for detecting memory leaks are the C/C++ debugger and the C Run-time Library (CRT) debug heap functions. The #define statement maps a base version of the CRT heap functions to the corresponding debug version. If you leave out the #define statement, the memory leak dump will be less detailed.
To find memory leaks and inefficient memory usage, you can use tools such as the debugger-integrated Memory Usage diagnostic tool or tools in the Performance Profiler such as the . NET Object Allocation tool and the post-mortem Memory Usage tool.
Memory leaks occur when new memory is allocated dynamically and never deallocated. In C programs, new memory is allocated by the malloc or calloc functions, and deallocated by the free function.
The best way to avoid memory leaks in C++ is to have as few new/delete calls at the program level as possible – ideally NONE. Anything that requires dynamic memory should be buried inside an RAII object that releases the memory when it goes out of scope.
_crtBreakAlloc will be reported as unidentified if the ucrtbased.dll symbols are not loaded. I had this problem because I do not automatically load my symbols. You can go in your module list and manually Load symbols for ucrtbased.dll and then _crtBreakAlloc should show up and work.
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