memóriaszivárgást

Memóriaszivárgás, or memory leak in English, is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations. In a properly functioning program, memory is allocated when needed and then deallocated when it is no longer required. A memory leak happens when the program allocates memory but fails to release it, even after it's no longer in use. This "leaked" memory remains occupied, making it unavailable for other parts of the program or for other applications.

Over time, as memory leaks accumulate, the program consumes more and more system memory. This can lead to a gradual degradation of performance, as the operating system may start to use slower storage (like swap space on a hard drive) to compensate for the lack of available RAM. Eventually, severe memory leaks can cause the program to crash or even destabilize the entire system, leading to an out-of-memory error.

Memory leaks can be caused by various programming errors. Common culprits include forgetting to free dynamically allocated memory, losing the reference to an allocated block of memory before deallocating it, or incorrect handling of object lifetimes in object-oriented programming. Detecting and fixing memory leaks often requires specialized debugging tools and careful analysis of the program's memory management. Programming languages with automatic garbage collection, like Java or Python, can help mitigate some types of memory leaks, but they are not entirely immune to them, especially in complex scenarios or when interacting with lower-level system resources.