Method, system and article for detecting memory leaks in Java software

摘要

An analysis tool for specifically identifying the cause and location of object memory leaks within a large software system is provided. The analysis tool transparently adds multiple processing threads that collaborate to identify sources of potential memory leaks in the software being analyzed. These threads provide notifications of object classes executing in the software that have had excessive instance counts or have exceeded the average lifetime of an object, thereby providing the analysis tool operator sufficient information to make a final determination of objects that are possible candidates for memory leaks. Once the cause and location of the object memory leaks are ascertained, the analysis tool operator may analyze the memory leaks, and subsequently modify the software to reduce or eliminate the memory leaks.