Help me understand memory leaks

Zyle · May 2016

So I've been trying to get a better understanding of how memory leaks happen and it seems difficult to get an accurate program to monitor ESO but I am wondering if anyone can make sense of my results from monitoring the 64bit version:

Top functions via which most memory disappeared
Leak 1) 1'121'331'452 bytes / 100.0 %

Leak 2) 1'121'320'150 bytes / 100.0 %
ntdll.dll RtlUserThreadStart (000000007715A2E1)
Leak 3) 1'121'320'150 bytes / 100.0 %

Leak 4) 1'121'220'089 bytes / 100.0 %
MSVCR100.dll malloc (000000006C2D8D17)
Leak 5) 832'616'571 bytes / 74.3 %

Leak 6) 832'397'828 bytes / 74.2 %
eso64.exe (000000014039FB71)
Leak 7) 686'420'489 bytes / 61.2 %

Leak 8) 682'340'471 bytes / 60.9 %
eso64.exe (000000013FBBC88D)
Leak 9) 681'466'130 bytes / 60.8 %

Leak 10) 451'039'368 bytes / 40.2 %
eso64.exe (000000014037A4FE)
Leak 11) 434'564'647 bytes / 38.8 %

Leak 12) 412'816'080 bytes / 36.8 %
eso64.exe (00000001403A9EEF)
Leak 13) 412'816'080 bytes / 36.8 %

Leak 14) 412'816'080 bytes / 36.8 %
eso64.exe (00000001403A88BA)
Leak 15) 390'865'942 bytes / 34.9 %

Leak 16) 390'865'942 bytes / 34.9 %
eso64.exe (0000000140031836)
Leak 17) 355'866'817 bytes / 31.7 %

Leak 18) 314'126'801 bytes / 28.0 %
eso64.exe (0000000140767437)
Leak 19) 312'725'191 bytes / 27.9 %

Leak 20) 310'312'064 bytes / 27.7 %
eso64.exe (0000000140788F8A)
Leak 21) 306'917'731 bytes / 27.4 %

Leak 22) 306'917'731 bytes / 27.4 %
eso64.exe (00000001407882A0)
Leak 23) 302'695'533 bytes / 27.0 %

Leak 24) 287'835'564 bytes / 25.7 %
eso64.exe (000000014039FE4B)
Leak 25) 287'835'564 bytes / 25.7 %

Leak 26) 277'530'772 bytes / 24.8 %
eso64.exe (00000001406B6DF1)
Leak 27) 223'557'224 bytes / 19.9 %

Leak 28) 223'518'064 bytes / 19.9 %
eso64.exe (00000001406B2594)
Leak 29) 220'628'696 bytes / 19.7 %

Leak 30) 215'252'656 bytes / 19.2 %
granny2_x64.dll GrannyReadFileSection (000007FEF7A36F4E)
Leak 31) 204'936'009 bytes / 18.3 %

Leak 32) 198'366'617 bytes / 17.7 %
eso64.exe (000000014079805C)
Leak 33) 191'746'338 bytes / 17.1 %

Leak 34) 191'746'338 bytes / 17.1 %
eso64.exe (000000014076A564)
Leak 35) 190'795'660 bytes / 17.0 %

Leak 36) 182'821'037 bytes / 16.3 %
eso64.exe (00000001403C08B7)
Leak 37) 182'704'058 bytes / 16.3 %

Leak 38) 182'704'058 bytes / 16.3 %
eso64.exe (00000001403F2945)
Leak 39) 182'704'058 bytes / 16.3 %

Leak 40) 182'665'579 bytes / 16.3 %
eso64.exe AK::StreamMgr::CreateDevice (000000014103A487)
Leak 41) 179'476'168 bytes / 16.0 %

Leak 42) 169'572'559 bytes / 15.1 %
eso64.exe (00000001407E48E7)
Leak 43) 154'625'589 bytes / 13.8 %

Leak 44) 153'316'986 bytes / 13.7 %
eso64.exe (000000014077330B)
Leak 45) 148'177'112 bytes / 13.2 %

Leak 46) 148'163'807 bytes / 13.2 %
eso64.exe (000000014084F1E6)
Leak 47) 115'738'288 bytes / 10.3 %

Leak 48) 115'738'288 bytes / 10.3 %
granny2_x64.dll GrannyCopyLocalPose (000007FEF7A5EE0F)
Leak 49) 109'316'745 bytes / 9.7 %

Leak 50) 105'508'061 bytes / 9.4 %
eso64.exe (00000001407674D2)
Leak 51) 99'495'328 bytes / 8.9 %

Leak 52) 94'248'326 bytes / 8.4 %
eso64.exe (0000000140031F05)
Leak 53) 90'998'028 bytes / 8.1 %

Leak 54) 90'724'320 bytes / 8.1 %
eso64.exe (0000000140794C4F)
Leak 55) 90'724'320 bytes / 8.1 %

Leak 56) 84'175'593 bytes / 7.5 %
eso64.exe (00000001406922E8)
Leak 57) 83'957'157 bytes / 7.5 %

Leak 58) 83'957'157 bytes / 7.5 %
eso64.exe (000000014069381F)
Leak 59) 83'957'157 bytes / 7.5 %

Leak 60) 83'957'157 bytes / 7.5 %
eso64.exe (0000000140140E9D)
Leak 61) 83'330'912 bytes / 7.4 %

Leak 62) 83'330'912 bytes / 7.4 %
eso64.exe (00000001407E1DD5)
Leak 63) 75'882'402 bytes / 6.8 %

Leak 64) 75'882'402 bytes / 6.8 %
eso64.exe (000000014037A3A7)
Leak 65) 69'782'639 bytes / 6.2 %

Leak 66) 69'780'911 bytes / 6.2 %
eso64.exe (000000014076AEA5)
Leak 67) 62'120'952 bytes / 5.5 %

Leak 68) 62'061'917 bytes / 5.5 %
eso64.exe (000000013FB965E5)
Leak 69) 62'008'999 bytes / 5.5 %

Leak 70) 61'424'605 bytes / 5.5 %
eso64.exe (0000000140121943)
Leak 71) 60'991'995 bytes / 5.4 %

Leak 72) 60'162'210 bytes / 5.4 %
eso64.exe (0000000140031826)
Leak 73) 59'071'523 bytes / 5.3 %

Leak 74) 53'778'340 bytes / 4.8 %
granny2_x64.dll GrannyStringDifference (000007FEF7A7FE94)
Leak 75) 53'738'892 bytes / 4.8 %

Leak 76) 51'906'697 bytes / 4.6 %
eso64.exe (000000013FBB082B)
Leak 77) 50'443'476 bytes / 4.5 %

Leak 78) 50'443'476 bytes / 4.5 %
eso64.exe (000000014076E497)
Leak 79) 49'043'778 bytes / 4.4 %

Leak 80) 49'043'778 bytes / 4.4 %
eso64.exe (00000001406C76CC)
Leak 81) 49'026'838 bytes / 4.4 %

Leak 82) 48'828'489 bytes / 4.4 %
eso64.exe (000000013FBAB1D0)
Leak 83) 48'409'748 bytes / 4.3 %

Leak 84) 48'409'748 bytes / 4.3 %
eso64.exe (0000000140712048)
Leak 85) 48'409'748 bytes / 4.3 %

Leak 86) 48'409'748 bytes / 4.3 %
eso64.exe (0000000140711B85)
Leak 87) 47'148'979 bytes / 4.2 %

Leak 88) 47'032'575 bytes / 4.2 %
eso64.exe std::_Init_locks::operator= (0000000140AE7463)
Leak 89) 45'120'696 bytes / 4.0 %

Leak 90) 45'120'696 bytes / 4.0 %
eso64.exe std::_Init_locks::operator= (0000000140AF84E7)
Leak 91) 45'116'596 bytes / 4.0 %

Leak 92) 44'880'534 bytes / 4.0 %
eso64.exe (0000000140365A0D)
Leak 93) 44'880'534 bytes / 4.0 %

Leak 94) 41'079'250 bytes / 3.7 %
eso64.exe (00000001408506A4)
Leak 95) 41'079'250 bytes / 3.7 %

Leak 96) 41'079'250 bytes / 3.7 %
eso64.exe (00000001407E247F)
Leak 97) 41'063'773 bytes / 3.7 %

Leak 98) 39'593'135 bytes / 3.5 %
eso64.exe (0000000140808071)
Leak 99) 38'490'687 bytes / 3.4 %

Leak 100) 38'490'687 bytes / 3.4 %
eso64.exe (000000014076B293)

Sorry for the wall of text I'm just having trouble understanding if it really did detect 100+ small leaks or if this is 100% wrong or not.

wayfarerx · May 2016

Well I'm not sure what tool you're using, but with entries like:

Zyle wrote: »

...
ntdll.dll RtlUserThreadStart (000000007715A2E1)
...
MSVCR100.dll malloc (000000006C2D8D17)
...

I assume it's not a particularly sophisticated analysis. Both of those operations allocate memory and won't free it before the function returns by sheer necessity. So there's no real way to tell if any of the other entries in this list mean anything as far as permanently leaking memory because of a design defect.

Zyle · May 2016

wayfarerx wrote: »

Well I'm not sure what tool you're using, but with entries like:

Zyle wrote: »

...
ntdll.dll RtlUserThreadStart (000000007715A2E1)
...
MSVCR100.dll malloc (000000006C2D8D17)
...

I assume it's not a particularly sophisticated analysis. Both of those operations allocate memory and won't free it before the function returns by sheer necessity. So there's no real way to tell if any of the other entries in this list mean anything as far as permanently leaking memory because of a design defect.

That's what I was confused about as well, seems I need to find a better tool

The biggest problem I'm running into is I can only monitor for less than 30min or so before the few programs I've tried crash. I'll try and see if I can find a better program and post back, thank you for the reply!