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<title>Debugging Memory Allocation in APR - Apache HTTP Server</title>
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<a href="http://www.apache.org/">Apache</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/">HTTP Server</a> &gt; <a href="http://httpd.apache.org/docs/">Documentation</a> &gt; <a href="../">Version 2.0</a> &gt; <a href="./">Developer Documentation</a></div><div id="page-content"><div id="preamble"><h1>Debugging Memory Allocation in APR</h1>
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<p><span>Available Languages: </span><a href="../en/developer/debugging.html" title="English">&nbsp;en&nbsp;</a></p>
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    <p>The allocation mechanism's within APR have a number of debugging modes
    that can be used to assist in finding memory problems. This document
    describes the modes available and gives instructions on activating
    them.</p>
</div>
<div id="quickview"><ul id="toc"><li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#options">Available debugging options</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#combo">Allowable Combinations</a></li>
<li><img alt="" src="../images/down.gif" /> <a href="#howto">Activating Debugging Options</a></li>
</ul></div>
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<div class="section">
<h2><a name="options" id="options">Available debugging options</a></h2>
    <h3><a name="alloc_debug" id="alloc_debug">Allocation Debugging - ALLOC_DEBUG</a></h3>
    

      <div class="note">Debugging support: Define this to enable code which
      helps detect re-use of <code>free()</code>d memory and other such
      nonsense.</div>

      <p>The theory is simple. The <code>FILL_BYTE</code> (<code>0xa5</code>)
      is written over all <code>malloc</code>'d memory as we receive it, and
      is written over everything that we free up during a
      <code>clear_pool</code>. We check that blocks on the free list always
      have the <code>FILL_BYTE</code> in them, and we check during
      <code>palloc()</code> that the bytes still have <code>FILL_BYTE</code>
      in them. If you ever see garbage URLs or whatnot containing lots
      of <code>0xa5</code>s then you know something used data that's been
      freed or uninitialized.</p>
    

    <h3><a name="alloc_use_malloc" id="alloc_use_malloc">Malloc Support - ALLOC_USE_MALLOC</a></h3>
    

      <div class="note">If defined all allocations will be done with
      <code>malloc()</code> and <code>free()</code>d appropriately at the
      end.</div>

      <p>This is intended to be used with something like Electric
      Fence or Purify to help detect memory problems. Note that if
      you're using efence then you should also add in <code>ALLOC_DEBUG</code>.
      But don't add in <code>ALLOC_DEBUG</code> if you're using Purify because
      <code>ALLOC_DEBUG</code> would hide all the uninitialized read errors
      that Purify can diagnose.</p>
    

    <h3><a name="pool_debug" id="pool_debug">Pool Debugging - POOL_DEBUG</a></h3>
      <div class="note">This is intended to detect cases where the wrong pool is
      used when assigning data to an object in another pool.</div>

      <p>In particular, it causes the <code>table_{set,add,merge}n</code>
      routines to check that their arguments are safe for the
      <code>apr_table_t</code> they're being placed in. It currently only works
      with the unix multiprocess model, but could be extended to others.</p>
    

    <h3><a name="make_table_profile" id="make_table_profile">Table Debugging - MAKE_TABLE_PROFILE</a></h3>
    

      <div class="note">Provide diagnostic information about make_table() calls
      which are possibly too small.</div>

      <p>This requires a recent gcc which supports
      <code>__builtin_return_address()</code>. The error_log output will be a
      message such as:</p>
      <div class="example"><p><code>
        table_push: apr_table_t created by 0x804d874 hit limit of 10
      </code></p></div>

      <p>Use <code>l *0x804d874</code> to find the
      source that corresponds to. It indicates that a <code>apr_table_t</code>
      allocated by a call at that address has possibly too small an
      initial <code>apr_table_t</code> size guess.</p>
    

    <h3><a name="alloc_stats" id="alloc_stats">Allocation Statistics -  ALLOC_STATS</a></h3>
    

      <div class="note">Provide some statistics on the cost of allocations.</div>

      <p>This requires a bit of an understanding of how alloc.c works.</p>
    
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<div class="section">
<h2><a name="combo" id="combo">Allowable Combinations</a></h2>

    <p>Not all the options outlined above can be activated at the
    same time. the following table gives more information.</p>

    <table class="bordered"><tr class="header"><th />
        <th>ALLOC DEBUG</th>
        <th>ALLOC USE MALLOC</th>
        <th>POOL DEBUG</th>
        <th>MAKE TABLE PROFILE</th>
        <th>ALLOC STATS</th></tr>
<tr><th>ALLOC DEBUG</th>
        <td>-</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr class="odd"><th>ALLOC USE MALLOC</th>
        <td>No</td><td>-</td><td>No</td><td>No</td><td>No</td></tr>
<tr><th>POOL DEBUG</th>
        <td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>-</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr class="odd"><th>MAKE TABLE PROFILE</th>
        <td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>-</td><td>Yes</td></tr>
<tr><th>ALLOC STATS</th>
        <td>Yes</td><td>No</td><td>Yes</td><td>Yes</td><td>-</td></tr>
</table>

    <p>Additionally the debugging options are not suitable for
    multi-threaded versions of the server. When trying to debug
    with these options the server should be started in single
    process mode.</p>
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<div class="section">
<h2><a name="howto" id="howto">Activating Debugging Options</a></h2>

    <p>The various options for debugging memory are now enabled in
    the <code>apr_general.h</code> header file in APR. The various options are
    enabled by uncommenting the define for the option you wish to
    use. The section of the code currently looks like this
    (<em>contained in srclib/apr/include/apr_pools.h</em>)</p>

    <div class="example"><p><code>
      /*<br />
      #define ALLOC_DEBUG<br />
      #define POOL_DEBUG<br />
      #define ALLOC_USE_MALLOC<br />
      #define MAKE_TABLE_PROFILE<br />
      #define ALLOC_STATS<br />
      */<br />
      <br />
      typedef struct ap_pool_t {<br />
      <span class="indent">
        union block_hdr *first;<br />
        union block_hdr *last;<br />
        struct cleanup *cleanups;<br />
        struct process_chain *subprocesses;<br />
        struct ap_pool_t *sub_pools;<br />
        struct ap_pool_t *sub_next;<br />
        struct ap_pool_t *sub_prev;<br />
        struct ap_pool_t *parent;<br />
        char *free_first_avail;<br />
      </span>
      #ifdef ALLOC_USE_MALLOC<br />
      <span class="indent">
        void *allocation_list;<br />
      </span>
      #endif<br />
      #ifdef POOL_DEBUG<br />
      <span class="indent">
        struct ap_pool_t *joined;<br />
      </span>
      #endif<br />
      <span class="indent">
        int (*apr_abort)(int retcode);<br />
        struct datastruct *prog_data;<br />
      </span>
      } ap_pool_t;
    </code></p></div>

    <p>To enable allocation debugging simply move the <code>#define
    ALLOC_DEBUG</code> above the start of the comments block and rebuild
    the server.</p>

    <div class="note"><h3>Note</h3>
    <p>In order to use the various options the server <strong>must</strong>
    be rebuilt after editing the header file.</p>
    </div>
</div></div>
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