The OSPSuite.SimModel is a the component of the OSPSuite, written mainly in C++, that reads the model description in its XML format, creates a differential equations system from it and solves it. In this part of the documentation we will describe how to use the Visual Leak Detector to detect memory leaks in the C++ code.
Using the Visual Leak Detector
Looking for memory leaks in SimModel when used in PK-Sim (MoBi, etc. - same procedure)
Open SimModel solution in Visual Studio and uncomment the line #include <vld.h> in src/OSPSuite.SimModelNative/src/Simulation.cpp
If VLD was installed NOT into the default path: open project settings of OSPSuite.SimModelNative and adjust the paths in the Debug-configuration
Build the Debug version of OSPSuite.SimModelNative
Copy OSPSuite.SimModelNative.dll and OSPSuite.SimModelNative.pdb from <SimModel_SolutionDir>\Build\Debug\x64 into the PK-Sim folder
Copy the Debug version of OSPSuite.FuncParserNative.dll and OSPSuite.FuncParserNative.pdb from the corresponding Nuget package into the PK-Sim folder
Copy the Debug version of OSPSuite.SimModelSolver_CVODES.dll and OSPSuite.SimModelSolver_CVODES.pdb from the corresponding Nuget package into the PK-Sim folder
Open "C:\Program Files (x86)\Visual Leak Detector\vld.ini" in a text editor and set
AggregateDuplicates = yes
ForceIncludeModules = <list of additional C++ libs to include>
E.g. to profile FuncParser as well: ForceIncludeModules = OSPSuite.FuncParserNative.dll
ReportFile = <path to report file> Leak report will be created here
E.g. ReportFile = C:\Temp\SimModelLeaks.txt
ReportTo = file or ReportTo = both
StackWalkMethod = fast
Start PK-Sim and perform actions you would like to profile (run individual/population simulations, perform sensitivity analysis, parameter identifications, ...)
Close PK-Sim. Leak report is now available in the <path to report file> defined in vld.ini
Example vld.iniExample VLD report (no leaks)Example VLD report (leaks detected)
Remarks
For additional included C++ modules: in order to get readable stack trace, Whole Program Optimization (/GL) Compiler option must be set
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
;;
;; Visual Leak Detector - Initialization/Configuration File
;; Copyright (c) 2005-2017 VLD Team
;;
;; This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or
;; modify it under the terms of the GNU Lesser General Public
;; License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either
;; version 2.1 of the License, or (at your option) any later version.
;;
;; This library is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
;; but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
;; MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU
;; Lesser General Public License for more details.
;;
;; You should have received a copy of the GNU Lesser General Public
;; License along with this library; if not, write to the Free Software
;; Foundation, Inc., 51 Franklin St, Fifth Floor, Boston, MA 02110-1301 USA
;;
;; See COPYING.txt for the full terms of the GNU Lesser General Public License.
;;
;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;;
; Any options left blank or not present will revert to their default values.
[Options]
; The main on/off switch. If off, Visual Leak Detector will be completely
; disabled. It will do nothing but print a message to the debugger indicating
; that it has been turned off.
;
; Valid Values: on, off
; Default: on
;
VLD = on
; If yes, duplicate leaks (those that are identical) are not shown individually.
; Only the first such leak is shown, along with a number indicating the total
; number of duplicate leaks.
;
; Valid Values: yes, no
; Default: no
;
AggregateDuplicates = yes
; Lists any additional modules to be included in memory leak detection. This can
; be useful for checking for memory leaks in debug builds of 3rd party modules
; which can not be easily rebuilt with '#include "vld.h"'. This option should be
; used only if absolutely necessary and only if you really know what you are
; doing.
;
; CAUTION: Avoid listing any modules that link with the release CRT libraries.
; Only modules that link with the debug CRT libraries should be listed here.
; Doing otherwise might result in false memory leak reports or even crashes.
;
; Valid Values: Any list containing module names (i.e. names of EXEs or DLLs)
; Default: None.
;
ForceIncludeModules = OSPSuite.FuncParserNative.dll
; Maximum number of data bytes to display for each leaked block. If zero, then
; the data dump is completely suppressed and only call stacks are shown.
; Limiting this to a low number can be useful if any of the leaked blocks are
; very large and cause unnecessary clutter in the memory leak report.
;
; Value Values: 0 - 4294967295
; Default: 256
;
MaxDataDump =
; Maximum number of call stack frames to trace back during leak detection.
; Limiting this to a low number can reduce the CPU utilization overhead imposed
; by memory leak detection, especially when using the slower "safe" stack
; walking method (see StackWalkMethod below).
;
; Valid Values: 1 - 4294967295
; Default: 64
;
MaxTraceFrames =
; Sets the type of encoding to use for the generated memory leak report. This
; option is really only useful in conjuction with sending the report to a file.
; Sending a Unicode encoded report to the debugger is not useful because the
; debugger cannot display Unicode characters. Using Unicode encoding might be
; useful if the data contained in leaked blocks is likely to consist of Unicode
; text.
;
; Valid Values: ascii, unicode
; Default: ascii
;
ReportEncoding = ascii
; Sets the report file destination, if reporting to file is enabled. A relative
; path may be specified and is considered relative to the process' working
; directory.
;
; Valid Values: Any valid path and filename.
; Default: .\memory_leak_report.txt
;
ReportFile = C:\Temp\SimModelLeaks.txt
; Sets the report destination to either a file, the debugger, or both. If
; reporting to file is enabled, the report is sent to the file specified by the
; ReportFile option.
;
; Valid Values: debugger, file, both
; Default: debugger
;
ReportTo = both
; Turns on or off a self-test mode which is used to verify that VLD is able to
; detect memory leaks in itself. Intended to be used for debugging VLD itself,
; not for debugging other programs.
;
; Valid Values: on, off
; Default: off
;
SelfTest = off
; Selects the method to be used for walking the stack to obtain stack traces for
; allocated memory blocks. The "fast" method may not always be able to
; successfully trace completely through all call stacks. In such cases, the
; "safe" method may prove to more reliably obtain the full stack trace. The
; disadvantage is that the "safe" method is significantly slower than the "fast"
; method and will probably result in very noticeable performance degradation of
; the program being debugged.
;
; Valid Values: fast, safe
; Default: fast
;
StackWalkMethod = fast
; Determines whether memory leak detection should be initially enabled for all
; threads, or whether it should be initially disabled for all threads. If set
; to "yes", then any threads requiring memory leak detection to be enabled will
; need to call VLDEnable at some point to enable leak detection for those
; threads.
;
; Valid Values: yes, no
; Default: no
;
StartDisabled = no
; Determines whether or not all frames, including frames internal to the heap,
; are traced. There will always be a number of frames internal to Visual Leak
; Detector and C/C++ or Win32 heap APIs that aren't generally useful for
; determining the cause of a leak. Normally these frames are skipped during the
; stack trace, which somewhat reduces the time spent tracing and amount of data
; collected and stored in memory. Including all frames in the stack trace, all
; the way down into VLD's own code can, however, be useful for debugging VLD
; itself.
;
; Valid Values: yes, no
; Default: no
;
TraceInternalFrames = no
; Determines whether or not report memory leaks when missing HeapFree calls.
;
; Valid Values: yes, no
; Default: no
;
SkipHeapFreeLeaks = no
; Determines whether or not report memory leaks generated from crt startup code.
; These are not actual memory leaks as they are freed by crt after the VLD object
; has been destroyed.
;
; Valid Values: yes, no
; Default: yes
;
SkipCrtStartupLeaks = yes
Visual Leak Detector Version 2.5.1 installed.
Aggregating duplicate leaks.
Forcing inclusion of these modules in leak detection: ospsuite.simmodelnative.dll
Outputting the report to the debugger and to C:\Temp\SimModelLeaks.txt
No memory leaks detected.
Visual Leak Detector is now exiting.
