VOGONS

DOSBox memory leak (use all my ram 'till it dies)

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First post, by Jay2

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Hi!!

I'm running ANABAT 6 from this web site:
http://users.lmi.net/corben/anabat.htm#Latest_Versions

I load a file (any BAT call), and each time I load a new file, it grows the ram usage by around 2MB.

I've attached a file so anybody can test. I've tried this on a P4 - 630 with 1 gig ram, a P4 - 630 with 512 MB and both have a ery different hardware configurations.

I've tried disabling all I can in DOSBox.conf (including EMS / XMS / UMB), and it still does the problem.

To recreate the bug:
Just copy the ANABAT6.exe file from the download site, with the file attached in a directory
-run DOSBox
-press ctrl-alt-delete to see memory usage under "performances",
-in Anabat press "shift-L" to load a file, choose the file and press enter
re-press shift-L to reload the same file, again and again.

The bug does not appear when running Anabat in windows' "cmd". Neither when runned in true DOS, as I've run it in system with under 8MB ram without problem.

So, why does DOSBox take 2MB each time I relaod the file???

Thanks,
Jay2

Reply 1 of 4, by wd

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Funny, doesn't happen with my msvc builds but with the 0.65 release and
some other gcc build i tried.

Reply 2 of 4, by Qbix

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hmm doesn't happen with my linux build either. It might be a very subtile bug that is triggered by the heavy optimalisations that come with the release build. Or some other bug.

Water flows down the stream
How to ask questions the smart way!

Reply 3 of 4, by Jay2

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I did the same test again, and it did take 2mb / reload on WinXP pro on a Dell Dimension 3100.

Another thing: When I just execute ANABAT6.COM, then quit using ctrl-X once the graphical display is on, it quits back to DOSBox, but takes around 24k more ram than before. When I execute ANABAT6.COM again, it raise the ram again.

The memory is taken while in DOSBox, but released after DOSBox is quitted. In the program manager, it says Dosbox stays around 40MB of ram usage, increasing by around 24 KB each time, but the total used ram keep increasing with each file reload by around 2 MB.

I've tried to reproduce with DOSBox 0.62-0.63 , and it did too, altrough the display does not show up correctly.

My guess: When you open the "open file" dialog with shift-L, it is in a pure-text screen. When the file is showed up, it is in a graphical screen. Could it be that DOSBox is "switching graphical display mode" and keeps the display loaded?

Reply 4 of 4, by wd

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> Could it be that DOSBox is "switching graphical display mode" and keeps the display loaded?

No, but maybe it's something with the file caching. It's hard to do any
real testing as the problem seems to be build-specific. You could go
through the cvs builds thread on the dev forum to see if any of those
works.

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