Detecting and remedying memory leaks caused by object reference cycles

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions, which when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform a method comprising:

• parsing programming code to identify instructions within the programming code to allocate objects and instructions within the programming code to create, delete, and/or update references to the objects;
• generating, based upon the identified instructions, a model of memory used when the programming code is executed, wherein the model includes representations of the objects and representations of changes to the references to the objects;
• determining, based upon the representations in the model, that each of a plurality of the objects is connected to another of the plurality of objects by one of the references but unreachable by any variable at a point of execution of the programming code;
• and
• generating, in response to the determination that the plurality of objects is unreachable, a report to flag the unreachable plurality of objects as a potential memory leak.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processing device;
• and
• a memory coupled to the processing device, the memory storing instructions which, when executed by the processing device, cause the apparatus to:
• parse programming code to identify instructions within the programming code to allocate objects and instructions within the programming code to create, delete, and/or update references to the objects;
• generate, based upon the identified instructions, a model of memory used when the programming code is executed, wherein the model includes representations of the objects and representations of changes to the references to the objects;
• determine, based upon the representations in the model, that each of a plurality of the objects is connected to another of the plurality of objects by one of the references but unreachable by any variable at a point of execution of the programming code;
• and
• generate, in response to the determination that the plurality of objects is unreachable, a report to flag the unreachable plurality of objects as a potential memory leak.