A Memory leak occurs when scrolling through a directory...

Zero3K · Post by **Zero3K** » 01 Apr 2008, 19:38

...that contains a lot of files (for example, \Windows\System32) (My OS is Windows Vista Business Edition and I'm running the latest version of Salamander).

Here's a screenshot that shows the leak:

Post by **Jan Rysavy** » 01 Apr 2008, 23:16

Did you use the same approach to detect memory leak mentioned in your last post?
Did you just monitor the amount of allocated memory by salamand.exe process?

Try to turn off the reading of icons using Options > Configuration > Drives > Use simple icons.
Also try to turn off Options > Configuration > Icon Overlays > Display custom icon overlays option.

The problem could be (and very likely will be) in some faulty shell extension installed on your computer.

Please do not insert links to ImageShack and use "Add an Attachment" feature in this forum instead. Thanks!

SvA · Post by **SvA** » 01 Apr 2008, 23:42

Zero3K, in what way do you think the image provided proves there's a memory leak in Altap Salamander?

Zero3K · Post by **Zero3K** » 02 Apr 2008, 02:26

>Did you just monitor the amount of allocated memory by salamand.exe process?

Yes.

>Try to turn off the reading of icons using Options > Configuration > Drives > Use simple icons.

That fixed the memory leak. Now it stays at 13 MBs when I scrolled to the bottom of the file-list.

Post by **zarevak** » 02 Apr 2008, 02:36

I have bigger leak

- over 1GB!!

(Click to see full image)

I'm sorry - just joking around. I had about 40 PictView windows open and enabled Thumbnails preview... After closing all windows and returning to details mode the memory usage is back to 30MB (with full icons and TortioseSVN, TortoiseCVS and Offline Files overlays)

EDIT to make the post at least a bit useful:
Statically allocated memory is not a problem. Leak is a problem described as constantly increasing memory usage (because unused memory is not freed).
I could say Firefox or Internet Explorer has memory problems because they I've seen them using around 500MB of memory. But it wasn't a leak - it was just inefficient memory usage and allocation.

The problem you are encountering can be coming from a badly written or bloated shell extension or some "smart" security software injecting code into Altap Salamander. Shell extensions' memory and libraries are loaded into Altap Salamander process and memory consumption is only reported for the whole process.

Zero3K · Post by **Zero3K** » 02 Apr 2008, 05:15

So maybe it was ThreatFire (which I have installed and running) that caused the memory usage to rise?

Post by **zarevak** » 02 Apr 2008, 05:56

I do not know ThreatFire so I cannot tell. Easiest way to tell if it is the culprit is to disable it and look at Salamander's memory usage.

You've already written that using simple icons had helped. Some icons are based on extension and some icons are further based on the file contents which get read by the library set in Windows registry. Try to look for pattern in file types and Salamander's memory usage - the library responsible for displaying icons of some file types may be buggy.
(eg: MS Office files (DOC, XLS, ...) is an example of some of the files which are typically iconized by library based on the file contents - but I hadn't observed any problems with these)

Zero3K · Post by **Zero3K** » 02 Apr 2008, 06:37

I don't need to see the icons of my files. Is there a way to disable the display of them?

Post by **Jan Rysavy** » 02 Apr 2008, 07:13

No. You can keep to use "Use simple icons" option.

Zero3K · Post by **Zero3K** » 02 Apr 2008, 07:49

Ok. I was thinking that maybe I could make its memory usage even less by disabling the file icons completly. Though its fine the way it is now.