The mpatrol library is yet another link library that attempts to diagnose
run-time errors that are caused by the wrong use of dynamically allocated
memory. If you don't know what the malloc() function or operator new[] do
then this library is probably not for you. You have to have a certain
amount of programming expertise and a knowledge of how to run a command
line compiler and linker before you should attempt to use this.
Along with providing a comprehensive and configurable log of all dynamic
memory operations that occurred during the lifetime of a program, the
mpatrol library performs extensive checking to detect any misuse of
dynamically allocated memory. All of this functionality can be integrated
into existing code through the inclusion of a single header file at
compile-time. On UNIX and Windows platforms (and AmigaOS when using gcc)
this may not even be necessary as the mpatrol library can be linked with
existing object files at link-time or, on some platforms, even dynamically
linked with existing programs at run-time.
All logging and tracing output from the mpatrol library is sent to a
separate log file in order to keep its diagnostics separate from any that
the program being tested might generate. A wide variety of library settings
can also be changed at run-time via an environment variable, thus removing
the need to recompile or relink in order to change the library's behaviour.
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