2024_Research_MassifCheck

Qt desktop application for running and analyzing Valgrind Massif heap memory profiling output.

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✨ Current Features

• Select a C or C++ source file (.c or .cpp) to automatically compile it and analyze with Valgrind Massif
• Select a compiled binary to analyze
• Run Valgrind's Massif tool with custom options
• Parse Massif output
• Provide memory usage analysis with function-level insights, including detection of heap growth and stabilization
• Generate suggestions based on customizable thresholds to help identify abnormal memory behavior

📘 For detailed instructions, see the Usage Guide.

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🚀 Getting Started

1. Prerequisites

• Qt Creator (6.0+)
• WSL (Windows Subsystem for Linux)
• Ubuntu distribution inside WSL
• g++ and gcc compilers installed inside WSL
• Valgrind installed in WSL

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2. Installing Qt Creator

Download and install from https://www.qt.io/download

✅ Recommended: Use MSVC or MinGW kits for Desktop development

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3. Setting up WSL and Valgrind

a. Enable WSL

Open PowerShell as Administrator and run:

wsl --install

b. Set Ubuntu as the Default WSL Distribution if you have multiple

wsl -l -v

This will list all installed distros, for example:

  NAME            STATE           VERSION
* Ubuntu-22.04    Running         2
  Debian          Stopped         2

Then set Ubuntu as default:

wsl --set-default Ubuntu-22.04

c. Install build-essential tools in Ubuntu

Open powershell and launch wsl

wsl

Then inside wsl run

sudo apt update
sudo apt install build-essential

The build-essential package includes gcc, g++, and other tools required for compiling C/C++ programs.

d. Install Valgrind in Ubuntu

Open powershell and launch wsl

wsl

Then inside wsl run

sudo apt update
sudo apt install valgrind

Verify installation:

valgrind --version

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🛠️ Building the Project

• Open the project folder containing CMakeLists.txt in Qt Creator

• Configure with a Desktop kit

• Click the Run button ▶️

💡 Make sure your Valgrind-executed binaries are accessible from WSL paths if running through Windows UI.

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🧪 Testing with Example Inputs

The ./test/ directory contains several example C and C++ source files that you can use to test the application.

When you run these test files through the application, the generated massif.out.x files will be saved by default in the ./massif_files/ directory.

Alternatively, you can use the provided run_massif_on_tests.sh script to automatically compile and generate massif.out.x files in the ./massif_files/ directory, which you can then load and analyze within the application.

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🤖 Automated Massif Profiling for C and C++ Tests with run_massif_on_tests.sh (Optional)

The run_massif_on_tests.sh helper script is optional and automates the process of compiling and running C and C++ tests with Valgrind's Massif tool to generate profiling data. This script can be used as a faster way to generate Massif output files, but all the same functionality is available through the Qt application itself.

🔍 What it does:

• Searches for .c and .cpp files listed in the test/ directory.

• Compiles them using the appropriate compiler:

  • gcc for .c files
  • g++ for .cpp files

• Automatically creates the massif_files/ directory if it doesn't exist.

• Runs each compiled test through valgrind --tool=massif.

• Saves the output as massif.out.<n> files inside the massif_files/ directory.

📂 Example file structure:

├── QT_Massif_App/
├── test/
│   ├── test1.c
│   ├── test2.c
│   └── test3.cpp
├── massif_files/
│   ├── massif.out.1
│   ├── massif.out.2
│   └── massif.out.3
└── run_massif_on_tests.sh

💡 This script is helpful for quickly generating Massif profiling data for test binaries outside the Qt application interface.

⚙️ How to use:

1. (Optional) Predefined Test Files:

   • The script is currently hardcoded to run the following test files: test1.c, test2.c, test3.cpp, test4.cpp, test5.cpp.
   • To add your own test files, simply edit the TEST_FILES array in the script. For example:

   TEST_FILES=("test1.c" "test2.c" "test3.cpp" "my_new_test4.c")

   • The script will automatically detect the correct compiler based on the file extension (gcc for .c and g++ for .cpp).

   Note: This step is optional. If you don't need to modify the test files, you can skip it and use the default ones.

2. Open WSL Terminal

   • Open PowerShell in the directory where this project is located, then start WSL by running:

   wsl

   Note: This will open a Linux terminal in the current project folder, so you can run the bash script properly.

3. Make sure run_massif_on_tests.sh is executable:

   chmod +x run_massif_on_tests.sh

4. Run the script:

   ./run_massif_on_tests.sh

   • If you get a 'cannot execute' error running the script in WSL, it’s likely due to Windows-style CRLF line endings To fix this, in WSL install dos2unix if you don’t have it:

     sudo apt update
     sudo apt install dos2unix

     Then convert the script to Unix line endings

     dos2unix run_massif_on_tests.sh

     Then you can run the script again

     ./run_massif_on_tests.sh

The script will automatically compile and run each test, saving the profiling results in the massif_files/ directory.

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📌 Notes

• 🐧 Valgrind runs only on Linux systems. On Windows, it uses WSL to execute Linux binaries.

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👤 Contributors

• Stefan Drljević
• Vukašin Marković