mälulekete

Mälulekete, often translated as memory leak, is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations. This leads to the program consuming more and more memory over time without releasing it, even when it is no longer needed. Eventually, this excessive memory consumption can degrade the performance of the system, potentially leading to crashes or instability.

Memory leaks are a common issue in software development, particularly in languages that require manual memory management, such as C and C++. In these languages, developers are responsible for allocating memory when it's needed and deallocating it when it's no longer in use. If a developer forgets to deallocate memory, or if there's a logical error in the program that prevents deallocation, a memory leak can occur. Languages with automatic garbage collection, like Java or Python, are less prone to memory leaks, but they are not entirely immune. Leaks can still happen in these environments if objects are held onto longer than necessary by references that should have been cleared.

Diagnosing and fixing memory leaks can be challenging. It often involves using specialized debugging tools that can track memory allocations and identify where memory is being held. The impact of a memory leak can range from minor performance degradation to complete system failure, making it an important bug to address during software development.