Drop Visual Leak Detector (VLD)

[DasBlub]

I plan to drop the VLD from our repository. I prepared the commit here: https://github.com/DasBlub/mangos/commit/b316c4af7c9737be5fd25437f3fad87bbe196ad9

This is the last call to anyone out there who is still using it. Please tell me now (with a reply in this thread please). If nobody is using it, I will push this commit by the end of this week.

VLD has been disabled back in 2008 and never since been used again in our source code, thus I think it's fairly save to drop it. As noted in the commit message, our VLD version is outdated (a newer version is also linked there) and there are other (better?) alternatives like Valgrind.

This is done in order to clean up and reduce our dependencies on other libraries.

- DasBlub

[Ambal]

yes, please, drop VLD. In case we will need memory leak detector there are plenty brilliant profilers around.

[Unkle Nuke]

Please forgive my ignorance. I'm still learning C++ and have a long way to go before worrying about more advanced tools such a code profiling.

I'm currently working with MingGW and Code::Blocks on Windows XP SP2 platform for my studies, but I do still use Visual C++ 2008 for compiling MaNGOS. It's my understanding that Valgrind is a utility exclusive to Linux. Should Visual Leak Detector be dropped, are there recommended alternatives for the Windows platform outside of Visual Studio for profiling code and finding memory leaks? I try to stick with open source or free tools whenever possible. Which would be especially recommended by any of you MaNGOS devs?

[DasBlub]

i got this book in the Microsoft Shop in redmond, it has quite a lot of informations, links, tools and hints about debugging: http://advancedwindowsdebugging.com/

afaik you can use the Microsoft Application Verifier in order to track leaks. i'll have a look into the book again and tell you more.

[DasBlub]

i just looked it up in the book again. there are several possible tools described in there:

- LeakDiag (by MS): ftp://ftp.microsoft.com/PSS/Tools/Developer%20Support%20Tools/LeakDiag/leakdiag125.msi

- Debugging Tools For Windows (set of many tools for different stuff, by MS): http://microsoft.com/whdc/ddk/debugging

- DebugDiag from the IIS Diagnostics Toolkit (by MS): http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=7e42b310-b2d1-496b-8005-9d91782b9995&pf=true (x64) / http://www.microsoft.com/downloads/en/details.aspx?FamilyID=9bfa49bc-376b-4a54-95aa-73c9156706e7&pf=true (x86)

i hope this helps

[Unkle Nuke]

Thank you for the information DasBlub. I do have the XP DDK and Server 2008 Platform SDK tools, but I believe that link you provided for the LeakDiag is a new one which will be very useful.

The MS programming utilities may be considered ideal for native code, but will they be suitable for a cross-platform project like MaNGOS? Also, those are proprietary tools and I was hoping there might be some open-source alternatives for the Windows environment, but I suppose it could be asking too much to expect the same level of functionality as Valgrind or the MS stuff.

I do plan on eventually switching to a Linux dev environment, but that may not happen until I make more progress with my programming studies. C++ is enough to handle in itself, I don't want to over-complicate things with learning the more technical details of Linux just yet.

Maybe I should grab that VLD patch while I can... just in case. lol

[DasBlub]

based on the replies i assume that nobody is using VLD anymore (and those who might do will most likely be able to include the newer VLD version).

i will thus commit this this evening.

[DasBlub]

ok guys, VLD is gone: https://github.com/mangos/mangos/commit/d88b5eedb8ec9e7a1de2c3d4880489bf2894a5a0