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authorericm <ericm>2000-04-27 01:46:58 (GMT)
committerericm <ericm>2000-04-27 01:46:58 (GMT)
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* doc/memory.n: Man page for Tcl "memory" command, which is
created when TCL_MEM_DEBUG is defined at compile time. * doc/TCL_MEM_DEBUG.3: Man page with overall information about TCL_MEM_DEBUG usage. * doc/DumpActiveMemory.3: Man page for Tcl_DumpActiveMemory, Tcl_InitMemory, and Tcl_ValidateAllMemory [Bug: 1816, 1835]. * generic/tclCkalloc.c: Fixed some function headers. * unix/mkLinks: Regen'd with new mkLinks.tcl. * unix/mkLinks.tcl: Fixed indentation, made link setup more intelligent (only do one existance test per man page, instead of one per function).
Diffstat (limited to 'doc')
-rw-r--r--doc/DumpActiveMemory.368
-rw-r--r--doc/TCL_MEM_DEBUG.381
-rw-r--r--doc/memory.n82
3 files changed, 231 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/doc/DumpActiveMemory.3 b/doc/DumpActiveMemory.3
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..ab2a766
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/DumpActiveMemory.3
@@ -0,0 +1,68 @@
+'\"
+'\" Copyright (c) 1992-1999 Karl Lehenbauer and Mark Diekhans.
+'\" Copyright (c) 2000 by Scriptics Corporation.
+'\" All rights reserved.
+'\"
+'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: DumpActiveMemory.3,v 1.1 2000/04/27 01:46:59 ericm Exp $
+'\"
+.so man.macros
+.TH "Tcl_DumpActiveMemory" 3 8.1 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
+.BS
+.SH NAME
+Tcl_DumpActiveMemory, Tcl_InitMemory, Tcl_ValidateAllMemory \- Validated memory allocation interface.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+.nf
+\fB#include <tcl.h>\fR
+.sp
+int
+\fBTcl_DumpActiveMemory\fR(\fIfileName\fR)
+.sp
+void
+\fBTcl_InitMemory\fR(\fIinterp\fR)
+.sp
+void
+\fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR(\fIfileName, line\fR)
+
+.SH ARGUMENTS
+.AP Tcl_Interp *interp in
+Tcl interpreter in which to add commands.
+.AP char *fileName in
+For \fBTcl_DumpActiveMemory\fR, name of the file to which memory
+information will be written. For \fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR, name of
+the file from which the call is being made (normally \fB__FILE__\fR).
+.AP int line in
+Line number at which the call to \fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR is made
+(normally \fB__LINE__\fR).
+.BE
+
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+These functions provide access to Tcl memory debugging information.
+They are only available when Tcl has been compiled with
+\fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR defined at compile-time.
+.PP
+\fBTcl_DumpActiveMemory\fR will output a list of all currently
+allocated memory to the specified file. The information output for
+each allocated block of memory is: starting and ending addresses
+(excluding guard zone), size, source file where \fBckalloc\fR was
+called to allocate the block and line number in that file. It is
+especially useful to call \fBTcl_DumpActiveMemory\fR after the Tcl
+interpreter has been deleted.
+.PP
+\fBTcl_InitMemory\fR adds the Tcl \fBmemory\fR command to the
+interpreter given by \fIinterp\fR. It is called by \fBTcl_Main\fR
+when Tcl has been compiled with \fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR defined.
+.PP
+\fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR forces a validation of the guard zones of
+all currently allocated blocks of memory. Normally validation of a
+block occurs when its freed, unless full validation is enabled, in
+which case validation of all blocks occurs when \fBckalloc\fR and
+\fBckfree\fR are called. This function forces the validation to occur
+at any point.
+
+.SH SEE ALSO
+TCL_MEM_DEBUG, memory
+
+.SH KEYWORDS
+memory, debug
+
+
diff --git a/doc/TCL_MEM_DEBUG.3 b/doc/TCL_MEM_DEBUG.3
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..bf6e2fe
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/TCL_MEM_DEBUG.3
@@ -0,0 +1,81 @@
+'\"
+'\" Copyright (c) 1992-1999 Karl Lehenbauer and Mark Diekhans.
+'\" Copyright (c) 2000 by Scriptics Corporation.
+'\" All rights reserved.
+'\"
+'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: TCL_MEM_DEBUG.3,v 1.1 2000/04/27 01:46:59 ericm Exp $
+'\"
+.so man.macros
+.TH TCL_MEM_DEBUG 3 8.1 Tcl "Tcl Library Procedures"
+.BS
+.SH NAME
+TCL_MEM_DEBUG \- Compile-time flag to enable Tcl memory debugging.
+
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+When Tcl is compiled with \fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR defined, a powerful set
+of memory debugging aids are included in the compiled binary. This
+includes C and Tcl functions which can aid with debugging
+memory leaks, memory allocation overruns, and other memory related
+errors.
+
+.SH ENABLING MEMORY DEBUGGING
+.PP
+To enable memory debugging, Tcl should be recompiled from scratch with
+\fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR defined. This will also compile in a non-stub
+version of \fBTcl_InitMemory\fR to add the \fBmemory\fR command to Tcl.
+.PP
+\fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR must be either left defined for all modules or undefined
+for all modules that are going to be linked together. If they are not, link
+errors will occur, with either \fBTclDbCkfree\fR and \fBTcl_DbCkalloc\fR or
+\fBTcl_Ckalloc\fR and \fBTcl_Ckfree\fR being undefined.
+.PP
+Once memory debugging support has been compiled into Tcl, the C
+functions \fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR, and \fBTcl_DumpActiveMemory\fR,
+and the Tcl \fBmemory\fR command can be used to validate and examine
+memory usage.
+
+.SH GUARD ZONES
+.PP
+When memory debugging is enabled, whenever a call to \fBckalloc\fR is
+made, slightly more memory than requested is allocated so the memory debugging
+code can keep track of the allocated memory, and eight-byte ``guard
+zones'' are placed in front of and behind the space that will be
+returned to the caller. (The size of the guard zone is defined by the
+C #define \fBGUARD_SIZE\fR in \fIbaseline/src/ckalloc.c\fR -- it can
+be extended if you suspect large overwrite problems, at some cost in
+performance.) A known pattern is written into the guard zones and, on
+a call to \fBckfree\fR, the guard zones of the space being freed are
+checked to see if either zone has been modified in any way. If one
+has been, the guard bytes and their new contents are identified, and a
+``low guard failed'' or ``high guard failed'' message is issued. The
+``guard failed'' message includes the address of the memory packet and
+the file name and line number of the code that called \fBckfree\fR.
+This allows you to detect the common sorts of one-off problems, where
+not enough space was allocated to contain the data written, for
+example.
+
+.SH DEBUGGING DIFFICULT MEMORY CORRUPTION PROBLEMS
+.PP
+Normally, Tcl compiled with memory debugging enabled will make it easy
+to isolate a corruption problem. Turning on memory validation with
+the memory command can help isolate difficult problems. If you
+suspect (or know) that corruption is occurring before the Tcl
+interpreter comes up far enough for you to issue commands, you can set
+\fBMEM_VALIDATE\fR define, recompile tclCkalloc.c and rebuild Tcl.
+This will enable memory validation from the first call to
+\fBckalloc\fR, again, at a large performance impact.
+.PP
+If you are desperate and validating memory on every call to
+\fBckalloc\fR and \fBckfree\fR isn't enough, you can explicitly call
+\fBTcl_ValidateAllMemory\fR directly at any point. It takes a \fIchar
+*\fR and an \fIint\fR which are normally the filename and line number
+of the caller, but they can actually be anything you want. Remember
+to remove the calls after you find the problem.
+
+.SH SEE ALSO
+memory, Tcl_ValidateAllMemory, Tcl_DumpActiveMemory
+
+.SH KEYWORDS
+memory, debug
+
+
diff --git a/doc/memory.n b/doc/memory.n
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..4815ec4
--- /dev/null
+++ b/doc/memory.n
@@ -0,0 +1,82 @@
+'\"
+'\" Copyright (c) 1992-1999 by Karl Lehenbauer and Mark Diekhans
+'\" Copyright (c) 2000 by Scriptics Corporation.
+'\" All rights reserved.
+'\"
+'\" RCS: @(#) $Id: memory.n,v 1.1 2000/04/27 01:47:00 ericm Exp $
+'\"
+.so man.macros
+.TH memory n 8.1 Tcl "Tcl Built-In Commands"
+.BS
+.SH NAME
+memory \- Control Tcl memory debugging capabilities.
+.SH SYNOPSIS
+\fBmemory \fIoption \fR?\fIarg arg ...\fR?
+
+.SH DESCRIPTION
+.PP
+The \fBmemory\fR command gives the Tcl developer control of Tcl's memory
+debugging capabilities. The memory command has several suboptions, which are
+described below. It is only available when Tcl has been compiled with
+memory debugging enabled (when \fBTCL_MEM_DEBUG\fR is defined at
+compile time).
+.TP
+\fBmemory info\fR
+Produces a report containing the total allocations and frees since
+Tcl began, the current packets allocated (the current
+number of calls to \fBckalloc\fR not met by a corresponding call
+to \fBckfree\fR), the current bytes allocated, and the maximum number
+of packets and bytes allocated.
+.TP
+\fBmemory trace [on|off]\fR
+.br
+Turns memory tracing on or off. When memory tracing is on, every call
+to \fBckalloc\fR causes a line of trace information to be written to
+\fIstderr\fR, consisting of the word \fIckalloc\fR, followed by the
+address returned, the amount of memory allocated, and the C filename
+and line number of the code performing the allocation. For example:
+.CS
+ckalloc 40e478 98 tclProc.c 1406
+.CE
+Calls to \fBckfree\fR are traced in the same manner.
+.TP
+\fBmemory validate [on|off]\fR
+Turns memory validation on or off. When memory validation is enabled,
+on every call to \fBckalloc\fR or \fBckfree\fR, the guard zones are
+checked for every piece of memory currently in existence that was
+allocated by \fBckalloc\fR. This has a large performance impact and
+should only be used when overwrite problems are strongly suspected.
+The advantage of enabling memory validation is that a guard zone
+overwrite can be detected on the first call to \fBckalloc\fR or
+\fBckfree\fR after the overwrite occurred, rather than when the
+specific memory with the overwritten guard zone(s) is freed, which may
+occur long after the overwrite occurred.
+.TP
+\fBmemory trace_on_at_malloc\fR \fIcount\fR
+Enable memory tracing after \fIcount\fR \fBckalloc\fR's have been performed.
+For example, if you enter \fBmemory trace_on_at_malloc 100\fR,
+after the 100th call to \fBckalloc\fR, memory trace information will begin
+being displayed for all allocations and frees. Since there can be a lot
+of memory activity before a problem occurs, judicious use of this option
+can reduce the slowdown caused by tracing (and the amount of trace information
+produced), if you can identify a number of allocations that occur before
+the problem sets in. The current number of memory allocations that have
+occurred since Tcl started is printed on a guard zone failure.
+.TP
+\fBmemory break_on_malloc\fR \fIcount\fR
+After the \fBcount\fR allocations have been performed, \fBckalloc\fR's
+output a message to this effect and that it is now attempting to enter
+the C debugger. Tcl will then issue a \fISIGINT\fR signal against itself.
+If you are running Tcl under a C debugger, it should then enter the debugger
+command mode.
+.TP
+\fB memory display\fR \fIfile\fR
+Write a list of all currently allocated memory to the specified file.
+
+.SH SEE ALSO
+ckalloc, ckfree, Tcl_ValidateAllMemory, Tcl_DumpActiveMemory, TCL_MEM_DEBUG
+
+.SH KEYWORDS
+memory, debug
+
+