Path: utzoo!censor!geac!torsqnt!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!uunet!censun1!tae
From: tae@censun1.UUCP (TAE)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.x
Subject: Server Does Not Free Widget Resources
Keywords: widget resources, memory leak
Message-ID: <593@censun1.UUCP>
Date: 7 Dec 90 16:13:43 GMT
Organization: Century Computing, Inc., Laurel, MD
Lines: 38


Does anyone know how to get the server to release ALL resources associated
with a widget when the widget is destroyed?

We have an application which creates and destroys widgets frequently.
Some widgets are fairly simple, like Push Buttons, while others are
more complex, like Selection Lists. With each widget we carefully specify
a destroy procedure for freeing up resources allocated by the widget.  

What we find is that upon a widget's destruction, the X server seems to
fail to release some of the widget resources as evidenced by the fact
that the size of server grows with each widget's creation and fails to reduce
correspondingly in size with each widget's destruction. The amount
of server growth with each widget creation and consequent destruction is
on the order of between 5-10 KBytes.

We have seen this problem on a variety of servers:
	
	MIT X11R3
	MIT X11R4
	NCD X terminal servers

We have seen the problem with every widget set we have used:

	HP X Widgets
	Motif Widgets

Also we have tested out at least one other application which creates and
destroys widgets and have not seen the problem.

We don't want to wait around until the connection to the server is closed
to get these resources freed up. Any ideas on where we are going wrong?

Leif Neve
Century Computing, Inc.
lneve@cen.com
    or
ln@fox.gsfc.nasa.gov