Re: [Boost-users] [Boost.date-time] Problem with leak with time_from_string? Incorrect use, or other problem?

From: Jeff Garland (jeff_at_[hidden])
Date: 2006-02-22 23:49:21

On Wed, 22 Feb 2006 20:18:53 -0800, Stewart Loving-Gibbard wrote
> We have observed leaky behavior while using the Boost.date-time 
> libraries, with time_from_string specifically. The leak is simple to 
> replicate for us, on both Win32 (Visual Studio .NET 2005) and on 
> Linux 
> (GCC 3.x).
> 
> This code snippet leaks for us, at a rate of about a MB every 10 seconds:
> 
> while (true)
> {
>     time_from_string("2002-01-20 23:59:59");
> }
> 
> As far as I can tell, ptime (what time_from_string returns) is an 
> object that doesn't need to be deallocated with a Boost API 
> function. So, why are we leaking here? Did we compile Boost 
> incorrectly? Is there a way to link Boost that can trigger a leak?
> 
> (from_iso_string() also appears to leak for us, by the way, while 
> to_iso_string does not. It looks like time_from_string and 
> to_iso_string are in the same neighborhood, so I'm betting they 
> share the same fix.)
> 
> Any and all help appreciated. This is a blocking issue for us.

It's a problem in the standard library. Have a look at this recent thread.  A
few key emails:

http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/100969.php
http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101039.php
http://lists.boost.org/Archives/boost/2006/02/101122.php

As you'll see in the last email I've made some patches, but it isn't
comprehensive.  In particular, time_from_string is in one of those areas that
I don't believe I can patch easily.

If you're doing any non-trivial C++, I think you'll want to request support
from the vendor or apply their workarounds since date-time is hardly the only
code likely to be using basic_iostream.

Jeff