#include <mcheck.h> void mtrace(void); void muntrace(void);
The muntrace() function disables the hook functions installed by mtrace(), so that tracing information is no longer recorded for the memory-allocation functions. If no hook functions were successfully installed by mtrace(), muntrace() does nothing.
When mtrace() is called, it checks the value of the environment variable MALLOC_TRACE, which should contain the pathname of a file in which the tracing information is to be recorded. If the pathname is successfully opened, it is truncated to zero length.
If MALLOC_TRACE is not set, or the pathname it specifies is invalid or not writable, then no hook functions are installed, and mtrace() has no effect. In set-user-ID and set-group-ID programs, MALLOC_TRACE is ignored, and mtrace() has no effect.
| Interface | Attribute | Value |
| mtrace(), muntrace() | Thread safety | MT-Unsafe |
The tracing output produced after a call to mtrace() is textual, but not designed to be human readable. The GNU C library provides a Perl script, mtrace(1), that interprets the trace log and produces human-readable output. For best results, the traced program should be compiled with debugging enabled, so that line-number information is recorded in the executable.
The tracing performed by mtrace() incurs a performance penalty (if MALLOC_TRACE points to a valid, writable pathname).
$ cat t_mtrace.c #include <mcheck.h> #include <stdlib.h> #include <stdio.h>
int
main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
mtrace();
for (int j = 0; j < 2; j++)
malloc(100); /* Never freed--a memory leak */
calloc(16, 16); /* Never freed--a memory leak */
exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
}
When we run the program as follows, we see that mtrace() diagnosed memory leaks at two different locations in the program:
$ cc -g t_mtrace.c -o t_mtrace
$ export MALLOC_TRACE=/tmp/t
$ ./t_mtrace
$ mtrace ./t_mtrace $MALLOC_TRACE
Memory not freed:
-----------------
Address Size Caller
0x084c9378 0x64 at /home/cecilia/t_mtrace.c:12
0x084c93e0 0x64 at /home/cecilia/t_mtrace.c:12
0x084c9448 0x100 at /home/cecilia/t_mtrace.c:16
The first two messages about unfreed memory correspond to the two malloc(3) calls inside the for loop. The final message corresponds to the call to calloc(3) (which in turn calls malloc(3)).