Do Small Memory Leaks Matter Anymore?

Question

With RAM typically in the Gigabytes on all PC\'s now, should I be spending time hunting down all the small (non-growing) memory leaks that may be in my program? I\'m talking abo

Answer 1

Yes, it matters. Every little leak adds up.

For one, if your leaky code is used in a context where it is repeatedly used, and it leaks a little bit each time, those little bits add up. Even if the leak is small, and infrequent, those things can add up to significant quantities over long periods of time.

Secondarily... if you're writing code that has memory leaks, then that code has problems. I'm not saying that good code doesn't from time to time have memory leaks, but the fact of their existence means that there are some serious problems going on. Many, many security holes are due to just this sort of oversight (unbounded string copy, anyone?).

Bottom line is, if you know about it, and don't do all you can to track it down and fix it, then you're causing problems.