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Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe env race:mtrace init | AS-Unsafe init heap corrupt lock | AC-Unsafe init corrupt lock fd mem | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The mtrace function provides a way to trace memory allocation
events in the program that calls it. It is disabled by default in the
library and can be enabled by preloading the debugging library
libc_malloc_debug using the LD_PRELOAD environment
variable.
When the mtrace function is called it looks for an environment
variable named MALLOC_TRACE. This variable is supposed to
contain a valid file name. The user must have write access. If the
file already exists it is truncated. If the environment variable is not
set or it does not name a valid file which can be opened for writing
nothing is done. The behavior of malloc etc. is not changed.
For obvious reasons this also happens if the application is installed
with the SUID or SGID bit set.
If the named file is successfully opened, mtrace installs special
handlers for the functions malloc, realloc, and
free. From then on, all uses of these functions are traced and
protocolled into the file. There is now of course a speed penalty for all
calls to the traced functions so tracing should not be enabled during normal
use.
This function is a GNU extension and generally not available on other systems. The prototype can be found in mcheck.h.
Preliminary: | MT-Unsafe race:mtrace locale | AS-Unsafe corrupt heap | AC-Unsafe corrupt mem lock fd | See POSIX Safety Concepts.
The muntrace function can be called after mtrace was used
to enable tracing the malloc calls. If no (successful) call of
mtrace was made muntrace does nothing.
Otherwise it deinstalls the handlers for malloc, realloc,
and free and then closes the protocol file. No calls are
protocolled anymore and the program runs again at full speed.
This function is a GNU extension and generally not available on other systems. The prototype can be found in mcheck.h.
Next: Example program excerpts, Up: Allocation Debugging [Contents][Index]