memory leak
Sign in to saveAlso known as Missing Release of Memory after Effective Lifetime, leaking memory, memleak
type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations
~16 min read
Encyclopedic overview
In computer science, a memory leak is a type of resource leak that occurs when a computer program incorrectly manages memory allocations in a way that memory which is no longer needed is not released. A memory leak may also happen when an object is stored in memory but cannot be accessed by the running code (i.e. unreachable memory). A memory leak has symptoms similar to a number of other problems and generally can only be diagnosed by a programmer with access to the program's source code.
A related concept is the "space leak", which is when a program consumes excessive memory but does eventually release it.
Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “memory leak” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.