Command Line Detecting Memory Leaks in a Child Process

Memory Validator can be controlled from the command line prompt.

This tutorial describes in detail how to detect memory leaks for a child process launched from a process.

Sometimes the process you want to detect memory leaks for is not the process you are launching, but a process launched by that process.

Monitor the first child process

The command line is:

memoryValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                    -programToMonitorEXE "<<Any>>"
                    -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
                    -saveSession "c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.mvm" 
                    -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -programToMonitorEXE “<<Any>>”
• Specify that it should be the first program launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 1
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.mvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.mvm”
• Run Memory Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the first program that testbed.exe launches. When the monitored program closes, the memory leak results are finalised and then saved to the session c:\test results\testFirstChildProcess.mvm. Finally, Memory Validator is closed.

Monitor a specific child process

The command line is:

memoryValidator.exe -program "c:\test results\testbed.exe"
                    -programToMonitorEXE "c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe"
                    -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
                    -saveSession "c:\test results\testbedHelper2.mvm" 
                    -hideUI

The above command line can be broken into its constituent items:

• Specify the program to run. -program “c:\test results\testbed.exe”
• Specify the program to monitor. -program “c:\test results\testbed_helper.exe”
• Specify that we are interested in the second time testbed_helper.exe is launched. -programToMonitorLaunchCount 2
• The resulting session is saved in c:\test results\testbedHelper2.mvm. -saveSession “c:\test results\testbedHelper2.mvm”
• Run Memory Validator with the user interface hidden. -hideUI

This command line runs testbed.exe but monitors the second launch of testbed_helper.exe. When the testbed_helper.exe closes, the memory leak results are finalised and then saved to the session c:\test results\testbedHelper2.mvm. Finally, Memory Validator is closed.

Command Line Builder

If you find writing command lines tiresome and you’d like some help, we have created a command line builder tool to make the process of creating command lines a lot easier.