Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
A handle leak is a type of software bug that occurs when a computer program asks for a handle to a resource but does not free the handle when it is no longer used. [1] If this occurs frequently or repeatedly over an extended period of time, a large number of handles may be marked in-use and thus unavailable, causing performance problems or a crash.
Typically the handle is an index or a pointer into a global array of tombstones. A handle leak is a type of software bug that occurs when a computer program does not free a handle that it previously allocated. This is a form of resource leak, analogous to a memory leak for previously allocated memory.
Typical resource leaks include memory leak and handle leak, particularly file handle leaks, though memory is often considered separately from other resources. [ 1 ] Examples of resources available in limited numbers to the operating system include internet sockets , file handles , process table entries, and process identifiers (PIDs).
In other words, resource acquisition must succeed for initialization to succeed. Thus, the resource is guaranteed to be held between when initialization finishes and finalization starts (holding the resources is a class invariant), and to be held only when the object is alive. Thus, if there are no object leaks, there are no resource leaks.
A memory leak has symptoms similar to a number of other problems and generally can only be diagnosed by a programmer with access to the program's source code. A related concept is the "space leak", which is when a program consumes excessive memory but does eventually release it. [3]
Get AOL Mail for FREE! Manage your email like never before with travel, photo & document views. Personalize your inbox with themes & tabs. You've Got Mail!
Smart pointers prevent most situations of memory leaks by making the memory deallocation automatic. More generally, they make object destruction automatic: an object controlled by a smart pointer is automatically destroyed ( finalized and then deallocated) when the last (or only) owner of an object is destroyed, for example because the owner is ...
Even if a garbage collected programming language is used, resource exhaustion attacks are possible if the program uses memory inefficiently and does not impose limits on the amount of state used when necessary. File descriptor leaks are another common vector. Most general-purpose programming languages require the programmer to explicitly close ...