Purify: Fast Detection of Memory Leaks and Access Errors

This paper describes Purify, a software testing and quality assurance tool that detects memory leaks and access errors. Purify inserts additional checking instructions directly into the object code produced by existing compilers. These instructions check every memory read and write performed by the program-undertest and detect several types of access errors, such as reading uninitialized memory or writing to freed memory. Purify inserts checking logic into all of the code in a program, including third-party and vendor object-code libraries, and verifies system call interfaces. In addition, Purify tracks memory usage and identifies individual memory leaks using a novel adaptation of garbage collection techniques. Purify produces standard executable files compatible with existing debuggers. Purify's nearly comprehensive memory access checking slows the target program down typically by less than a factor of three and has resulted in significantly more reliable software for several development groups.