<p>Excessive memory use may cause severe performance problems and system crashes. Without appropriate tools, it may be difficult or impossible to determine why a program is using too much memory. This applies even though Python provides automatic memory management --- garbage collection can help avoid many memory allocation bugs, but only to a certain extent due to the lack of information during program execution. There is still a need for tools helping the programmer to understand the memory behaviour of programs, especially in complicated situations. The primary motivation for Heapy is that there has been a lack of such tools for Python.</p><p>The main questions addressed by Heapy are how much memory is used by objects, what are the objects of most interest for optimization purposes, and why are objects kept in memory. Memory leaks are often of special interest and may be found by comparing snapshots of the heap population taken at different times. Memory profiles, using different kinds of classifiers that may include retainer information, can provide quick overviews revealing optimization possibilities not thought of beforehand. Reference patterns and shortest reference paths provide different perspectives of object access patterns to help explain why objects are kept in memory.</p>

Excessive memory use may cause severe performance problems and system crashes. Without appropriate tools, it may be difficult or impossible to determine why a program is using too much memory. This applies even though Python provides automatic memory management --- garbage collection can help avoid many memory allocation bugs, but only to a certain extent due to the lack of information during program execution. There is still a need for tools helping the programmer to understand the memory behaviour of programs, especially in complicated situations. The primary motivation for Heapy is that there has been a lack of such tools for Python. The main questions addressed by Heapy are how much memory is used by objects, what are the objects of most interest for optimization purposes, and why are objects kept in memory. Memory leaks are often of special interest and may be found by comparing snapshots of the heap population taken at different times. Memory profiles, using different kinds of classifiers that may include retainer information, can provide quick overviews revealing optimization possibilities not thought of beforehand. Reference patterns and shortest reference paths provide different perspectives of object access patterns to help explain why objects are kept in memory.

<p>Det här examensarbetet är baserat på idéer ur ett uppdrag från företaget Saab Aerotech men är ett eget arbete.</p><p>Målet var att undersöka om det finns behov av ett verktyg som statiskt kan detektera dynamiska minneshanteringsproblem, som till exempel minnesläckage, i applikationer skrivna i C/C++. På grund av att minneshanteringsfel i C/C++ länge har varit ett känt problem undersökte vi detta och de befintliga lösningarna till det.</p><p>Vi fann två metoder till lösningar som de flesta verktyg använde sig av; statisk och dynamisk detektering. De flesta verktyg löste problemet genom att dynamiskt detektera minnesläckor och andra brister som till exempel buffer overflows. Ett verktyg löste dock problemet genom att statisk detektera minneshanteringsfel i källkoden för applikationerna. Eftersom alla befintliga lösningar har någon form av ineffektivitet så har vi undersökt möjligheten att utveckla ett mer effektivt verktyg. Vi har kommit fram till att denna möjlighet finns men det kräver enormt mycket tid och arbete att göra ett komplett verktyg som detekterar minneshanteringsfel statiskt.</p><p>Vår prototyp detekterar dynamiska minneshanteringsproblem i källkoden statiskt. Vi har använt oss av hjälpverktygen Flex och Bison för att utveckla vår prototyp av verktyget. Prototypen kan analysera källkod skriven i programspråken C och C++ och klarar att detektera minnesläckage, felaktiga avallokeringar av minne, dangling pointers, samt läsning från och skrivning till ogiltiga minnesområden. På grund av tidsbrist har vi i nuläget inte implementerat något stöd för klasser och objekt i prototypen.</p> / <p>This bachelor’s project is our own project, but it is based on ideas from an assignment from the Saab Aerotech company.</p><p>The goal was to investigate if there is a need for a tool that statically can detect dynamic memory management errors, such as memory leaks, in applications written in C/C++. Since the problem of memory management errors in the C/C++ languages has been known for a long time, we decided to investigate this and the existing solutions.</p><p>We found that most tools used two methods as solutions; static and dynamic detection. Most of these tools solve the problem by dynamically detecting memory leaks and other deficiencies such as buffer overflows. However, one of these tools used static detection of these deficiencies by scanning the source code of the applications. Since all the existing solutions have some kind of inefficiency, we have investigated the possibility to develop a more efficient tool. We concluded that this is possible but it will take a lot of time and effort to implement a complete tool that statically detects memory management errors.</p><p>Our prototype statically detects dynamic memory management problems in the source code. We have used the tools Flex and Bison to develop our prototype of a static detection tool. The prototype analyzes source code written in the programming languages C and C++ and is capable of detecting memory leaks, invalid deallocations of memory, dangling pointers and reading from and writing to invalid memory areas. Currently, due to lack of time, we have not implemented any support for classes and objects in the prototype.</p>

Det här examensarbetet är baserat på idéer ur ett uppdrag från företaget Saab Aerotech men är ett eget arbete. Målet var att undersöka om det finns behov av ett verktyg som statiskt kan detektera dynamiska minneshanteringsproblem, som till exempel minnesläckage, i applikationer skrivna i C/C++. På grund av att minneshanteringsfel i C/C++ länge har varit ett känt problem undersökte vi detta och de befintliga lösningarna till det. Vi fann två metoder till lösningar som de flesta verktyg använde sig av; statisk och dynamisk detektering. De flesta verktyg löste problemet genom att dynamiskt detektera minnesläckor och andra brister som till exempel buffer overflows. Ett verktyg löste dock problemet genom att statisk detektera minneshanteringsfel i källkoden för applikationerna. Eftersom alla befintliga lösningar har någon form av ineffektivitet så har vi undersökt möjligheten att utveckla ett mer effektivt verktyg. Vi har kommit fram till att denna möjlighet finns men det kräver enormt mycket tid och arbete att göra ett komplett verktyg som detekterar minneshanteringsfel statiskt. Vår prototyp detekterar dynamiska minneshanteringsproblem i källkoden statiskt. Vi har använt oss av hjälpverktygen Flex och Bison för att utveckla vår prototyp av verktyget. Prototypen kan analysera källkod skriven i programspråken C och C++ och klarar att detektera minnesläckage, felaktiga avallokeringar av minne, dangling pointers, samt läsning från och skrivning till ogiltiga minnesområden. På grund av tidsbrist har vi i nuläget inte implementerat något stöd för klasser och objekt i prototypen. / This bachelor’s project is our own project, but it is based on ideas from an assignment from the Saab Aerotech company. The goal was to investigate if there is a need for a tool that statically can detect dynamic memory management errors, such as memory leaks, in applications written in C/C++. Since the problem of memory management errors in the C/C++ languages has been known for a long time, we decided to investigate this and the existing solutions. We found that most tools used two methods as solutions; static and dynamic detection. Most of these tools solve the problem by dynamically detecting memory leaks and other deficiencies such as buffer overflows. However, one of these tools used static detection of these deficiencies by scanning the source code of the applications. Since all the existing solutions have some kind of inefficiency, we have investigated the possibility to develop a more efficient tool. We concluded that this is possible but it will take a lot of time and effort to implement a complete tool that statically detects memory management errors. Our prototype statically detects dynamic memory management problems in the source code. We have used the tools Flex and Bison to develop our prototype of a static detection tool. The prototype analyzes source code written in the programming languages C and C++ and is capable of detecting memory leaks, invalid deallocations of memory, dangling pointers and reading from and writing to invalid memory areas. Currently, due to lack of time, we have not implemented any support for classes and objects in the prototype.

<p>Three issues will be elaborated and disussed in the proposed thesis. The first is<br />administration and control of data access rights in networks with XML data, with<br />emphasis on data security. The second is the administration and control of<br />access rights to data in computer networks with RDF data, with emphasis on<br />data privacy. The third is prevention of errors and memory leaks, as well as<br />communication errors, generated by programs written in Sing # language in the<br />presence of exceptions. For all three issues, there will be presented formal<br />models with corresponding type systems and showed the absence of undesired<br />behavior i.e. errors in networks or programs.</p> / <p>У тези су разматрана три проблема. Први је администрација и контрола<br />права приступа података у рачунарској мрежи са XML подацима, са<br />нагласком на безбедости посматраних података. Други је администрација и<br />котрола права приступа подацима у рачунарској мрежи са RDF подацима,<br />са нагласком на приватности посматраних података. Трећи је превенција<br />грешака и цурења меморије, као и грешака у комуникацији генерисаним<br />програмима написаних на језику Sing# у којима су присутни изузеци. За сва<br />три проблема биће предложени формални модели и одговарајући типски<br />системи помоћу којих се показује одсуство неповољних понашања тј.<br />грешака у мрежама односно програмима.</p> / <p>U tezi su razmatrana tri problema. Prvi je administracija i kontrola<br />prava pristupa podataka u računarskoj mreži sa XML podacima, sa<br />naglaskom na bezbedosti posmatranih podataka. Drugi je administracija i<br />kotrola prava pristupa podacima u računarskoj mreži sa RDF podacima,<br />sa naglaskom na privatnosti posmatranih podataka. Treći je prevencija<br />grešaka i curenja memorije, kao i grešaka u komunikaciji generisanim<br />programima napisanih na jeziku Sing# u kojima su prisutni izuzeci. Za sva<br />tri problema biće predloženi formalni modeli i odgovarajući tipski<br />sistemi pomoću kojih se pokazuje odsustvo nepovoljnih ponašanja tj.<br />grešaka u mrežama odnosno programima.</p>