Comments on: Update on Memory Leaks

By: ipearx

ipearx — Sun, 02 Oct 2005 04:04:44 +0000

I just posted a screenshot of my machine memory usage with Safari after a few days usage. It demonstrates the excessive memory usage of Safari. My machine is now paging to the hard drive when it doesn’t really need to.
http://pear.co.nz/public/safari_mem_hog.png

By: ipearx

ipearx — Thu, 29 Sep 2005 23:27:09 +0000

Hi I’m using the default version of Safari 2.0.1 with Saft installed. I would love to see a brief description of how Safari is meant to use memory on various systems. I have 1.5GB on one machine, and find Safari is constantly using hundreds of megs of resident memory, even after closing all windows, and emptying the cache. This isn’t a problem until I run out of ram, and things start paging to disk, at which point I quit and restart Safari to clear up a heap of space.

Does it use as much free memory as it can? When does it (or is it meant to) release the memory back? How big are these memory leaks? Does it only release memory back when the machines runs out of free ram and has to start using swap files? Does emptying the cache empty both the disk cache and the memory cache? Does Safari try to use a percentage of the available ram?

Answers to these questions would help us understand if we are having memory leaks, or if it is simply using what’s available and doing what it should.

Thanks and keep up the good work!

By: stingerman

stingerman — Fri, 09 Sep 2005 06:59:12 +0000

Since these leaks effect WebKit, that must mean that all the other Webkit dependent services such as Dashboard Widgets also benefit. That is awesome. Can you give us the process and typical timeline for a build to go to final release to the general Mac user base?

By: dvreid

dvreid — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 12:14:16 +0000

I have recompiled Safari this weekend, and the memory usage is way down. I used to see several hundred MBs being used, but I have 6 tabs open and Safari is using only 65MB and it does not seem to be growing. Great work!

Thanks,
DR

By: Matt

Matt — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 16:52:30 +0000

Excellent news. 4000 leaks down to 5?!
It’s also excellent that open-sourcing Safari is having a knock-on effect on OS X. So people that aren’t even interested in Safari or WebKit will still benefit in all their other apps.

Good work guys.
Matt

By: digdug.dk » Blog Archive » 4000

digdug.dk » Blog Archive » 4000 — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 12:09:03 +0000

[...] 0
Posted September 2, 2005 2:07 pm in Apple, Software by Dennis

Über 4000 Memory Leaks wurden in Safari gefixt. Das erklärt so einiges. Momentane Laune:
[...]

By: michel binkhorst

michel binkhorst — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 07:53:27 +0000

Yay!

Still gives a fuzzy feeling to see some updates from you guys..I really wish Apple would pick up this kind of weblog communication for other Apple apps.