Anti-patterns related to memory leaks that can degrade application performance over time.
Memory Leaks Overview
Memory leaks occur when an application allocates memory but fails to release it when no longer needed. This leads to a gradual consumption of available memory, eventually causing performance degradation, application crashes, or system instability.
Common causes of memory leaks include:
Memory leaks are particularly problematic in long-running applications as they accumulate over time, leading to a phenomenon known as “memory bloat.”
Unclosed Resources
Failing to close resources like file handles, database connections, network sockets, or streams leads to resource leaks that can exhaust system resources and cause memory leaks.
To prevent resource leaks:
Event Listener Leaks
Event listener leaks occur when listeners are registered but not properly unregistered, particularly in component-based architectures or UI frameworks.
To prevent event listener leaks:
Circular References
Circular references occur when two or more objects reference each other, creating a cycle that can prevent garbage collection in environments without cycle-detecting garbage collectors.
To prevent circular reference leaks:
Static Collections Growing Unbounded
Static collections that grow unbounded are a common source of memory leaks, especially in long-running applications or singleton services.
To prevent unbounded collection growth:
Forgotten Timers and Intervals
Forgotten timers and intervals are a common source of memory leaks, especially in single-page applications or mobile apps where components are created and destroyed frequently.
To prevent timer leaks:
DOM Element References
Storing references to DOM elements or Views that outlive their visual representation is a common cause of memory leaks in web and mobile applications.
To prevent DOM/View reference leaks:
Closure Memory Leaks
Closures can cause memory leaks when they capture and retain references to large objects or the entire parent scope, even when only a small portion of that data is needed.
To prevent closure memory leaks:
Memory-Intensive Caching
Memory-intensive caching can lead to excessive memory consumption, especially when caching large objects like images, datasets, or complex structures.
To implement memory-efficient caching:
Memory Leak Detection and Prevention
Detecting and preventing memory leaks requires a combination of tools, practices, and awareness.
Memory leak detection strategies:
Prevention best practices: