Re: [PATCH] builtin-update-index.c (add_file_to_cache): Don't leak a cache entry.
- From
Jim Meyering <jim@meyering.net>
- Date
- Feb 18, 2007, 09:10 UTC
- Message-ID
- <87bqjrvnk2.fsf@rho.meyering.net>
- In-Reply-To
- <Pine.LNX.4.64.0702160858190.20368@woody.linux-foundation.org>
Linus Torvalds <torvalds@linux-foundation.org> wrote:
Show 14 quoted lines
> On Fri, 16 Feb 2007, Jim Meyering wrote:
>>
>> - if (index_path(ce->sha1, path, &st, !info_only))
>> + if (index_path(ce->sha1, path, &st, !info_only)) {
>> + free(ce);
>> return -1;
>> + }
>
> Well, the only user of this does:
>
> if (add_file_to_cache(p))
> die("Unable to process file %s", path);
>
> so the leak is very shortlived ;)True... for now, and probably for ever after, but what if? However, the goal in plugging a leak like this is not to avoid wasting memory, but rather to avoid spending time investigating it, again and again. It's analogous to making your code compile warning-free. When a new warning/leak pops up, it's easy to spot (in case it really does matter), not obscured by lots of older ones.
There are other ways to mark a leak as ignorable, but this method works across all leak-detecting tools.
If you'd prefer to avoid the cost of a technically-unnecessary free, give it a different name, so it can be a no-op most of the time, and "free" only when compiled in leak-checking mode.