Intro to Valgrind

...it's pronounced "val-grinned"...

What is Valgrind?

• Instrumentation framework for executable files
• Primarily used for dynamic analysis
• Open Source Software
• Pop-quiz: What is Valgrind named after? (no Googling)

How does it work?

• Translates executables to IR (processor-neutral) generic code
• Modifies the IR code if necesarry
• Converts back to machine code
• Executes the program on a simulated CPU

This ends up being significantly slower than normal execution.

How do I use it?

Valgrind itself is not a profiling tool. Valgrind has built-in tools which use the Valgrind framework to do program analysis.

Valgrind tool suite

• Memcheck
• Cachegrind
• Callgrind
• Massif
• Helgrind
• DRD
• Others...

We will focus on Memcheck and Callgrind.

Usage

How to use it:

                    $ valgrind --tool=memcheck ./someprogram
					

                    $ valgrind --tool=callgrind ./someprogram
					

Now on to some examples...

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