Debugging Dynamic Memory Usage Errors Using HP WDB (5900-1474; WDB 6.2; January 2011)

Table 13 Options for Performance Improvement
DescriptionCommandSetting
Controls the depth of the call stack.
By default, num is set to 4.
set heap-check
frame-count <num>
Stack Depth
Specifies the minimum leak size for
stack trace collection. The
debugger continues to report leaks
that are smaller than <num> bytes,
but it does not provide the stack
trace for the same. By default, num
is set to 0.
set heap-check
min-leak-size <num>
Minimum Leak Size
Supported Modes of Memory-debugging in WDB
WDB supports the following modes of memory-debugging:
• Interactive Mode
• Batch Mode
• Attach Mode
Debugging in the Interactive Mode
The interactive mode of memory-debugging is typically useful during the development
and defect fixing phase, where you need the flexibility to control the flow of program
execution while debugging memory related problems.
To debug your program in the interactive mode, complete the following steps:
1. Compile the source files with the —g option. No special compilation of link options
are required.
The program must be linked with shared libc.[so|sl]. Memory-checking features
do not work on the programs linked with archived libc.a
$ aCC –g <source filename> –o <executable>
2. To activate the memory debugging, perform either of the following:
• Invoke WDB with the -leaks option as follows:
$ gdb -leaks <executable>
This enables leak checking. To enable other memory debugging features you
must use the appropriate set of commands.
• Alternatively, enter the following command at the gdb prompt:
$ gdb <executable>
(gdb)set heap-check on
This enables leaks checking, bounds checking, and check for double-frees.
Supported Modes of Memory-debugging in WDB 59