Valgrind is an instrumentation framework for debugging and profiling programs. It is particularly valuable when investigating memory corruption, memory leaks and other errors that can cause unpredictable behaviour in C and C++ applications.
Rather than being a single debugger, Valgrind provides a collection of specialised analysis tools. These examine different aspects of a program’s execution, from memory allocation and thread synchronisation to cache behaviour and function-call costs.
Valgrind operates directly on compiled executables, although programs built with debugging symbols produce more useful diagnostic information. Its detailed reports can help locate faults that are difficult to reproduce or identify through conventional debugging.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Memcheck detects invalid memory accesses, use of uninitialised values, double frees and mismatched allocation and deallocation.
- Identify memory leaks and obtain stack traces showing where problematic allocations originated.
- Cachegrind analyses instruction execution, cache behaviour and branch prediction to identify potential performance problems.
- Callgrind collects call-graph and profiling information to reveal expensive execution paths.
- Massif profiles heap usage over time, identifying memory consumption and the allocations responsible.
- Helgrind detects data races, lock-order problems and misuse of POSIX threading primitives.
- DRD provides another approach to detecting data races and threading errors.
- DHAT examines heap allocations and their patterns of use, including how frequently allocated data is accessed.
- Generate detailed diagnostic reports that can be used alongside tools such as KCachegrind.
Website: valgrind.org
Support: Manual
Developer: Valgrind Developers
License: GNU General Public License v2.0
Valgrind is written in C. Learn C with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
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