What is Memory Monitor for the iPhone?

Question

I've heard a lot of people talk of a tool called Memory Monitor as a better way to examine the memory usage of an iPhone app as Object Alloc doesn't give an accurate picture of how much memory an app is actually using.

How can I launch Memory Monitor? I can't find it in instruments. Is it a part of a separate tool I have to download?

Thanks! Nick.

Answer 1

The "Leaks" Instruments template also monitors overall memory usage (and more.) The Activity Monitor application (/Applications/Utilities/Activity Monitor.app) may the be illusive "Memory Monitor." It has indications of real and virtual memory usage.

I'm not aware of any other tool explicitly called "Memory Monitor." If such an application exists, I can't imagine what other data it would obtain that Activity Monitor and Instruments wouldn't already be considering.

Answer 2

Memory Monitor is just one of the tools in Instruments. After you start your Instruments run (Xcode: Run > Start With Performance Tool > Leaks), click Library in the instruments window toolbar and drag Memory Monitor into the main window.

Memory Monitor is significant because it shows TOTAL memory usage by your app, whether or not that usage is reflected in ObjectAlloc.

The most important bar in Memory Monitor seems to be the last one, Total Memory Used. If this one keeps climbing, eventually your app will be toast. Drag the triangle control through the time bar (top of window) to get numeric value for any point in time.

Answer 3

If you're looking to help locate leaks in your code, try: http://clang.llvm.org/StaticAnalysis.html

Best Regards Richard L. Burton III