Detecting and Locating Memory Leaks in Fortran Programs

Detecting and Locating Memory Leaks in Fortran Programs

Memory leaks in Fortran can be tricky to find, especially in large codebases. Here are several approaches to detect and locate them:

1. Using Specialized Tools

Valgrind (Linux/Mac)

valgrind --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all ./your_fortran_program

• Works best with -g compiler flag for debug symbols
• May need --track-origins=yes for better tracking
• Note: Some false positives may occur with Fortran runtime

Intel Inspector (Windows/Linux)

• Specialized memory leak detection for Fortran
• Provides graphical interface and detailed reports

2. Compiler-Specific Options

gfortran:

gfortran -g -fcheck=all -fbacktrace your_program.f90

Intel Fortran:

ifort -g -check all -traceback your_program.f90

3. Manual Techniques

Allocation/Deallocation Tracking

! Wrap allocations/deallocations with counters
module mem_track
  integer, private :: alloc_count = 0, dealloc_count = 0
contains
  subroutine track_alloc(size)
    integer, intent(in) :: size
    alloc_count = alloc_count + size
    print *, 'Allocated: ', size, ' Total: ', alloc_count
  end subroutine
  
  subroutine track_dealloc(size)
    integer, intent(in) :: size
    dealloc_count = dealloc_count + size
    print *, 'Deallocated: ', size, ' Total: ', dealloc_count
  end subroutine
  
  subroutine check_leaks()
    if (alloc_count /= dealloc_count) then
      print *, 'POTENTIAL MEMORY LEAK: ', alloc_count - dealloc_count
    end if
  end subroutine
end module

Instrument Your Code

• Add logging around all allocate/deallocate statements
• Use preprocessor macros to enable/disable tracking:

#ifdef DEBUG_MEM
#define ALLOCATE(x,s) allocate(x(s)); call track_alloc(size(x))
#else
#define ALLOCATE(x,s) allocate(x(s))
#endif

4. Runtime Monitoring

Output Array Sizes

! At suspected leak locations
print *, 'Array size check: ', size(suspect_array)

Watch Memory Usage

• Use system tools like top, htop, or ps to monitor memory growth

Common Fortran Leak Sources

1. Forgotten DEALLOCATE statements
2. Early returns before deallocation
3. Exception paths that bypass deallocation
4. Circular references in derived types
5. Library calls that allocate memory internally

Best Practices

1. Always pair ALLOCATE with DEALLOCATE
2. Use Fortran 2003+ automatic allocation features where possible
3. Consider using allocatable arrays instead of pointers when possible
4. Implement module-level cleanup routines
5. Use finalizers for derived types (Fortran 2003+)

Would you like more specific information about any of these techniques or particular types of memory leaks you’re encountering?

Appendix

%MEM

top -p <PID> -d 10 -n 10000 -b  | tee top.log 
grep <USER> top.log  | awk '{print $10}'

Caveat

pointer->allocatable,target
grep -i pointer x.f90
grep -i allocate x.f90 
grep -i deallocate x.f90  

教训

尽可能避免使用pointer,不要用allocate给pointer变量申请内存资源,用allocate,target类型申请资源，需要时可用pointer指向allocate,target变量!