heap
heap(1) General Commands Manual heap(1)
NAME
heap – List all the malloc-allocated buffers in the process's heap
SYNOPSIS
heap [-s | -sortBySize] [-z | -zones] [-guessNonObjects] [-sumObjectFields]
[-showSizes] [-addresses all | <classes-pattern>] [-noContent]
pid | partial-executable-name | memory-graph-file
DESCRIPTION
heap lists the objects currently allocated on the heap of the specified
process, as well as summary data. Objects are categorized by class name,
type (Objective-C, C++, or CFType), and binary image. C++ objects are
identified by the vtable referenced from the start of the object, so with
multiple inheritance this may not give the precise class of the object.
The binary image identified for a class is the image which implements the
class, not necessarily the binary image which caused the objects to be
allocated at runtime, or which "owns" those objects.
heap requires one argument -- either the process ID or the full or partial
executable name of the process to examine, or the pathname of a memory
graph file generated by leaks or the Xcode Memory Graph Debugger.
The following options are available:
-s | -sortBySize
Sort output by total size of class instances, rather than by count.
-z | -zones
Show the output separated out into the different malloc zones,
instead of an aggregated summary of all zones.
-guessNonObjects
Look through the memory contents of each Objective-C object to find
pointers to malloc'ed blocks (non-objects), such as the variable
array hanging from an NSArray. These referenced blocks of memory
are identified as their offset from the start of the object (say
"__NSCFArray[12]"). The count, number of bytes, and average size
of memory blocks referenced from each different object offset
location are listed in the output.
-sumObjectFields
Do the same analysis as with the -guessNonObjects option, but add
the sizes of those referenced non-object fields into the entries
for the corresponding objects.
-showSizes
Show the distribution of each malloc size for each object, instead
of summing and averaging the sizes in a single entry.
-diffFrom=<memgraph>
Show only the new objects since the specified memgraph.
-addresses all | <classes-pattern>
Print the addresses of all malloc blocks found on the heap in
ascending address order, or the addresses of those objects whose
full class name is matched by the regular expression <classes-
pattern>. The string "all" indicates that the addresses of all
blocks should be printed.
The <classes-pattern> regular expression is interpreted as an
extended (modern) regular expression as described by the
re_format(7) manual page. "malloc" or "non-object" can be used to
refer to blocks that are not of any specific type. Examples of
valid classes-patterns include:
__NSCFString
'NS.*'
'__NSCFString|__NSCFArray'
'.*(String|Array)'
malloc
non-object
malloc|.*String
The <classes-pattern> pattern can be followed by an optional
allocation size specifier, which can be one of the following forms.
The square brackets are required. The size can include a 'k' suffix
for kilobytes, or an 'm' suffix for megabytes:
[size]
[lowerBound-upperBound]
[lowerBound+]
[-upperBound]
Examples of <classes-pattern> with size specifications include:
malloc[2048] // all malloc blocks of size 2048
malloc[1k-8k] // all malloc blocks between 1k and 8k
CFData[50k+] // all CFData objects 50k or larger
[-1024] // all allocations 1024 bytes or less
-noContent
Do not show object content in -addresses mode.
SEE ALSO
malloc(3), leaks(1), malloc_history(1), stringdups(1), vmmap(1),
DevToolsSecurity(1)
The Xcode developer tools also include Instruments, a graphical application
that can give information similar to that provided by heap. The Allocations
instrument graphically displays dynamic, real-time information about the
object and memory use in an application, including backtraces of where the
allocations occurred. The Leaks instrument performs memory leak analysis.
macOS 12.1 Oct. 7, 2019 macOS 12.1