Subject: Re: leaking iconv handles, wv return type
From: Sam TH (sam@uchicago.edu)
Date: Wed Nov 15 2000 - 08:34:20 CST
On Wed, Nov 15, 2000 at 05:31:06PM +0400, Vlad Harchev wrote:
> On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Thomas Fletcher wrote:
>
> > On Wed, 15 Nov 2000, Vlad Harchev wrote:
> >
> > > On Tue, 14 Nov 2000, Thomas Briggs wrote:
> > >
> > > > > XAP_EncodingManager is assumed to be created no more than 3 times. So I
> > > > > didn't care about leaking iconv descriptors - they don't take a lot of
> > > > memory
> > > > > (no more than 100bytes each). I don't recommend spending time on bothering
> > > > to
> > > > > close those descriptors.
> > > >
> > > > I would normally refrain but such obvious flame bait, but I have to ask:
> > > > you can't be serious, can you?
> > >
> > > By serious, you mean "don't joke"? If I don't append smiley, then I don't
> > > joke. If you mean "be more responsible" - I am since I know that not
> > > releasing iconv handles won't make any harm except of additional 500 bytes of
> > > memory not returned to memory heap.
> >
> > Or under an embedded system where the number of system
> > fd's is potentially limited, running out of file descriptors.
> > In a long running program (which AbiWord could potentially
> > be) then there is no reason that you shouldn't be cleaning
> > up after yourself. Compared to the time that we spend doing
> > other operations, the work of free() and close() are noise
> > and we should do everything we can to prevent the leak of
> > _any_ resource (be it memory or file descriptors). Addressing
> > this issue now will mean that someone won't have to deal with
> > it later when/if it becomes a problem.
>
> As I said, initialize is called only 3 times per AW session. So it doesn't
> matter how long you run AW - the amount of leaked memory will be the same.
> And AW is not supposed to run in embedded environment.
AbiWord is *PORTABLE* That means that it runs everywhere we can
possible get it to compile. Someday, you may write up your
shopping list on you intelligent fridge with AbiWord.
>
> > Vlad, you are obviously a very capable developer ... why
> > are you against taking the 10 minutes that it would probably
> > take to properly address this issue?
>
> I don't want to bother with this burocratical issue and force future guys who
> will extend XAP_EncodingManager bother studying and then updating
> that additional code for sake of 500 leaked bytes that leak completely under
> our control. I.e. don't turn freeing them into a policy.
No.
Freeing allocated memory *is* policy. And that policy is *not*
going to change.
Vlad, this attitude isn't ok. Even though this is a small thing, we
have built a quality system by paying attention to the small things.
sam th
sam@uchicago.edu
http://www.abisource.com/~sam/
GnuPG Key:
http://www.abisource.com/~sam/key
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