memory concerns

Hi everyone!
I´m making a game and using a engine to do it.
But I have a problem, my game has a lot of pointers(like normal big programs). I need to know if all the pointers are being deallocated. I thought about using auto_ptr, but this could conflict with the engine and I already coded a lot of classes and such.
So I tried to use C to help me with this. I used a C function(heapcheck), but I had a lot of strange errors. Sorry if I don´t have any code, but it was a long time ago...
My final question is: How can I know if all my pointers are being deallocated.
Any help or just comment would be great :)

> How can I know if all my pointers are being deallocated.
If possible, write a debug variant of new and delete that handle a counter. Increment with every new and decrement with every delete, if the counter is 0 at the end you're good. I've found this to be an easy and reliable way to check for memory leaks.

search for a garbage collector

>search for a garbage collector
Isn't that a bit of overkill? You would have to suffer the detrimental effects of a garbage collector for the life of the program whereas simply making sure there are no leaks is usually sufficient and doesn't effect the finished application.

Quote:

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Originally posted by Trauts
search for a garbage collector

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Where? How? I have never see one...

Quote:

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Originally posted by Brighteyes
>search for a garbage collector
Isn't that a bit of overkill? You would have to suffer the detrimental effects of a garbage collector for the life of the program whereas simply making sure there are no leaks is usually sufficient and doesn't effect the finished application.

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Indeed, there is a bit of processing behind the trash collector. But in my case, using it is better then rebuild all the project. Your ideia is excellent(I thougt it myself), and starting know I´ll use it in every program. But for a project that involves a lot of included files... I don´t know, I can´t mess things can I?
I hate Java, but it has a garbage collector... and we know how Java is famous....

>Where?
Online somewhere, google it.

>How?
With great care. Garbage collectors are not simple and can be very tricky.

>I have never see one...
Probably because C++ as a language isn't suited to garbage collection and its so difficult to do it well in a general way. As such, if GC is found to buy the application anything at all (which is rare), a memory pooling and collection system is moulded specifically to that application. Otherwise, the memory pooling is usually still done for efficiency reasons, but the GC is ignored in favor of explicit release in the code.

Is there a way of using the MSVC debugger to detect memory leaks?

what i do in cases like this is to overload global new and delete to keep a list of allocations. when the list contains an allocation that isnt deleted by the operator delete then a memory leak is flagged.
This doesnt allow malloc/free leaks to be caught tho but it is certainly a good starting point. Once you have the code leak free remove the overloaded new and delete as they are for debugging purposes only.

Ok! I have never see the overload of the new and delete operator, but I read something about...
My question is: Do I have to overload the new for every type that I use in my program?Or there is another way?
And second: I just readed theory, could someone show me an example??

Thank you all!

p.s.:I´m already trying to write my own "Smart Pointers" class

Quote:

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Originally posted by gustavosserra
Ok! I have never see the overload of the new and delete operator, but I read something about...
My question is: Do I have to overload the new for every type that I use in my program?Or there is another way?
And second: I just readed theory, could someone show me an example??

Thank you all!

p.s.:I´m already trying to write my own "Smart Pointers" class

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yeah. Add this line in front of it:

template <typename DataType>

and change the type you have for the overload to DataType.

Code:

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template <typename DataType>
function(DataType X)
{
    whatever to do
}

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As for the garbage collector, http://www.hpl.hp.com/personal/Hans_Boehm/gc/

Sorry, but it doesn´t say nothing to me. If I understood well, I must make a template. This means that I´ll have to change the calling for new, right?

int * pInt = new<int> int(number);
I´m must be wrong... anyway. Besides this problem, I don´t know how to implement the new function.
Coud you please give me a "pointer" to some good on-line material? Or show me how it works?
Thanks for the help!