Program uses a lot of memory and doesnt exit properly

Watching my program in Task Manager it uses a lot of memory. Also when I exit the program (by clicking the X close buttion) the form disappears but it remains running in task manager and the memory use continues to stay high - what could be reasons for this?

Why isnt it closing and why is it keeping so much memory in use?

The program uses a lot of arrays and pointers but Ive tried to remove all of these after use, eg if I have a pointer called point,

Code:

---

delete point;
point = NULL;

---

Is this sufficient?

Are there any other reasons for the problem?

Thanks for any help

TJJ

Hard to say without posting more code

If you do
point = new Point[100];

Be sure to do
delete [] point;
and not
delete point;

Thanks for your reply

I have been making sure the entire array is deleted as you say but I still have huge memory use.

At the moment, I have tried to delete pointers whenever Im not using them anymore and I also delete almost all of them at the end of the main routine.

However, the memory isnt being freed properly. One thing I have just noticed which is worrying is that when the program is running CPU use in very low (about 3%) but as soon as I close the program the CPU usage hit 100%!

What could cause this - could this give me a clue as to what isnt freeing properly?

Thanks for any further help

TJJ

It would help if you would post some code.

At the point you do
delete [] array;
that memory isn't immediately given back to the OS such that task manager will notice a change. It is held internally so that calling new again will be a lot less expensive. Asking the OS for more memory is a pretty expensive thing to do, so programs usually a) take big bites when asking, and b) don't give it back until the program actually finishes.

Normally this means your program uses some memory and then it levels off as your program hits a peak. It can then call new and delete as much as it wants, and the overall amount used (as seen by task manager) doesn't change.

If you're seeing continual increases, then you have a problem in your code.

If you're using multithreading at all, make sure that the threads are exiting. In a program I once wrote, I accidentally fork( )ed without returning. Worst part was, it was inside a loop. It really made me appreciate Linux's killall command. :p

>> Also when I exit the program (by clicking the X close buttion) the form disappears but it remains running in task manager <<

Your WM_DESTROY should look like this:

Code:

---

case WM_DESTROY:
      PostQuitMessage(0);
      return 0;

---

and your message loop should look something like this:

Code:

---

    while(GetMessage(&msg, NULL, 0, 0) > 0)
    {
            TranslateMessage(&msg);
            DispatchMessage(&msg);
    }
 
    // Return the exit code to the system.
    return msg.wParam;

---

When you post the quit message GetMessage() will return 0 and your program will exit.

As for the memory problem, make sure that you are looking at the VM Size column and not the Mem Usage column in task manager.

Thanks for all the replies

I think Salems reply fits what is happening - the memory usage always hits a peak then stays steady.

Ive found that once the program hits the peak, if I minimize it, Task Manager reports it as having tiny amounts of memory usage, and if I maximize it, memory goes back to its steady high again - I think this fits with what Salem said?

Im still curious as to why when I do exit, the program remains in task manager with its high memory and the CPU maxes out? Could this be to do with it taking time and resources to give memory back to the OS?

As for posting code, Im not sure what to post which would be useful. Below is an example of a function which is using pointers:

Code:

---

void UpdateBVaue()
{
       
        double *PointerToData;
        PointerToData = new double[AccData[1]->DataCount()];

        double *PointerToNewData;
        PointerToNewData = AccData[1]->SecEE();

        for(i=0; i<10; i++)
        {
PointerToData[i] = PointerToNewData[i]->RetNewData();
        }

        delete[] PointerToData;
        PointerToData = NULL;

        delete[] PointerToNewData;
        PointerToNewData = NULL;

}

---

Thanks for any further help

TJJ

Just saw anonytmouse's reply - Ill go and have a check with those ideas and see if it helps....

I had been looking at Memory Usage in Task Manager, but looking at VM Size it is doing the same thing.

The VM Size goes high with the mem use but stays constant and high if I minimize or close the program. Mem use goes low when I minimize and goes high and constant when I exit.

As for the code segments you mention Im not sure about them as I am very new to Windows Programming. Ive been using the MFC wizard to make the form. Ive tried searching for the code you mention but it doesnt find anything - could this be the problem?

Ive noticed that when I exit and the memory goes high and the CPU maxes, and the app stays in task manager, if I wait for about 3-5 minutes eventually the program disappears from task manager, and the CPU goes back to normal - so the program does close but seems to take a long time and lots of resources to do so- can I speed that up?

Thanks for any further assistance - your help is much appreciated

TJJ

> Im still curious as to why when I do exit, the program remains in task manager
This sounds like a bug in your code - most programs disappear from task manager shortly after any visible presence of them disappears from the screen.

If your program is deleting lots of memory a few bytes at a time, then this could take a while.
It's not strictly the correct thing to do, but you could just exit the program without calling all those deletes, and the OS will just reclaim the memory anyway (its all virtual).

Procexp is a much better tool than task manager for rummaging around the innards of processes.

Thanks for your help

Is there a way of making the memory return to Windows quicker? Without any delete statements, it still seems to take a long time to properly close the program - is there a way of just dumping all memory back?

TJJ

Your program should close(ie. disappear from task manager) immediately(or near enough) when you close the last window. If it is not doing this, then there is something wrong with your code.

i had a similar problem when i made program with my new entrypoint and

// Return the exit code to the system.
return msg.wParam;

not working properly

i used ExitProcess()