How to: Use the Debug Heap

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Express			Native only
Standard			Native only
Pro and Team			Native only

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All calls to heap functions such as malloc, free, calloc, realloc, new, and delete resolve to debug versions of those functions that operate in the debug heap. When you free a memory block, the debug heap automatically checks the integrity of the buffers on either side of your allocated area and issues an error report if overwriting has occurred.

To use the debug heap

• Link the debug build of your application with a debug version of the C run-time library.

To change one or more _crtDbgFlag bit fields and create a new state for the flag

1. Call _CrtSetDbgFlag with the newFlag parameter set to _CRTDBG_REPORT_FLAG (to obtain the current _crtDbgFlag state) and store the returned value in a temporary variable.

2. Turn on any bits by OR-ing (bitwise | symbol) the temporary variable with the corresponding bitmasks (represented in the application code by manifest constants).

3. Turn off the other bits by AND-ing (bitwise & symbol) the variable with a NOT (bitwise ~ symbol) of the appropriate bitmasks.

4. Call _CrtSetDbgFlag with the newFlag parameter set to the value stored in the temporary variable to create the new state for _crtDbgFlag.

Example

For example, the following lines of code turn on automatic leak detection and turn off checking for blocks of type _CRT_BLOCK:

// Get current flag
int tmpFlag = _CrtSetDbgFlag( _CRTDBG_REPORT_FLAG );

// Turn on leak-checking bit.
tmpFlag |= _CRTDBG_LEAK_CHECK_DF;

// Turn off CRT block checking bit.
tmpFlag &= ~_CRTDBG_CHECK_CRT_DF;

// Set flag to the new value.
_CrtSetDbgFlag( tmpFlag );

See Also

Other Resources

The CRT Debug Heap