Random memory leak in binutils?

[Nick Clifton]

Hi Nile,

> But something strange happened that I have just finished proving is related to the GCC profiler: without the argument (`-pg') I get 22 allocs and 22 frees, but with the argument I tend to get 23 allocs and 22 frees with a fallout of a little more than 16KB as shown in the report below:
This is really more of a question for the gcc folks, rather than the
binutils, since -pg is a compiler option, not a linker option.
Nevertheless I will attempt to provide an answer for you.

The thing is, the -pg option adds extra code to your compiled program
and involves linking in different versions of the C runtime startup code
(crt1.o vs gcrt1.o).  You can see this for yourself if you compile with
the -v option added to the command line and compare the output when add
or remove the -pg option.

So it is almost certain that the memory leak is coming from this alternate
startup file.  Given what the -pg option does I would guess that the
startup code allocates memory to contain the profiling information that
is generated as the code runs.

Cheers
   Nick

PS.  As an aside I would suggest that worrying about memory leaks is only
important if your program is intended to run for a long time.  And worrying
about memory leaks when trying to profile the program is just not worth it.