[gvd-users] Huge memory requirements under NT

[David Brown]

>David,
>
>> I am running gvd with an embedded version of gdb (--debugger
>> m68k-bdm-elf-gdb) under Windows NT (SP3).  Task manager is reporting that
>> gvd is taking 40 MB of memory!  My code is not very big - about 50-60k
>> object code, with an elf file of around 700k with all the debug info.  As
I
>> mentioned in another post, the gvd explorer tree is full of library
>> modules - is gvd trying to load symbolic information for all the library
>> modules?
>
>No, gvd is not trying anything special on the modues, so this is
surprising.
>We've never seen such a memory usage with gvd, in particular for such small
>applications.
>
>Arno
>


On closer examination, it seems that gvd is starting small in its memory
requirements, and gradually growing over time - in other words, there is a
memory leak.  The Windows port of freeciv (which also uses GTK) had the same
problem, which was due to a leak in the GTK toolkit windows port.  I /think/
they (the freeciv porters) managed to fix it with a newer version of GTK,
but I am not sure.  My impression is that that the memory footprint jumps
when there is a change to what is displayed in one of the windows - clicking
a breakpoint on or off, or entering a gdb command uses a small bit of
memory, while switching between windows or scrolling scrollbars does not.

I am afraid re-compiling gvd on my machine (I have Cygwin, but not gnat) is
something I want to avoid, and I don't think the gvd log will be of any use
to you, but if there is any other way I can help with information or testing
for this problem, let me know.

Regards,

David Brown