Memory leak

Memory leaks are a consequence of a common error when programming, especially when programming in languages that have no garbage collection.

The error occurs when a program (thanks to an error made by the programmer) fails to release allocated memory to the system handling physical memory, which is often an operating system, resulting in an ever growing amount of memory being used. Eventually, the program is given all the available memory and the rest of the system will stop working correctly.

This is an usual problem of C and C++, so many tools exist to help detect these problems in C.