Re: Detecting memory leaks with libpq?

On Jul 19, 2011, at 6:28 AM, Craig Ringer wrote:

> Note that some "leaks" that are reported are _normal_ in most software. There is absolutely no harm in not free()ing a structure that's allocated only once during init and never messed with afterwards. The OS clears the memory anyway, so free()ing it is just a waste of CPU cycles.

Getting off topic here but "normal" isn't always "desirable." Some might say that allocating singletons and never freeing them - even after they're no longer valid - is just sloppy code. By the same logic, dangling pointers are A-OK, so long as you never use them. So yes, it might be an extra cycle or two to free it now, but that's a cycle or two the OS won't have to do later, and it's almost certainly better to have a cleaner codebase that's 0.000001% slower.

Or so some might argue. :)