detecting object causing memory leak in C#

Question

How to detect objects causing memory leaks in .net. Is it possible to detect object causing memory leaks using crash-dumps?

Answer 1

To detect and investigate memory leaks in .NET you have several options:

1. Use a memory profiler tool like RedGate's ANTS (many other similar tools are available).
2. Use WinDBG with its SOS extension.
3. Instrument your app yourself with a memory leak detector based on weak references.

To use crash dumps in the investigation of memory leaks see this stackoverflow question and this MSDN link.

Answer 2

Having one dump (and if it has been taken properly see this article ) maybe, having multiple dumps most certainly.

What you can do:

• If you haven´t already, install the Windows SDK to get the Debugging Tools for Windows
• If you have an x86 process (note: the architecture of the process is relevant, not the architecture of the system running the process) use WinDBG (x86), otherwise use the x64 Version.
• Go File - Open Crash Dump, locate your dump file and open it

• assuming your process is .net 4, in the debugger enter

  .loadby sos clr followed by !dumpheap -stat

• This will output the count and class name of managed types.

• Having multiple dumps will make it easier for your, but certainly not as easy as being able to use a Memory profiler