memory leaks [PF_SBJsonParser scan*:]

Question

I'm facing issues with memory leaks in XCode, I tried my best in clearing all issues pointed out by analyzer, my project is under ARC management, XCode 4.6.3, Parse.framework 1.2.11.

The issue seems to be cropping up in combination with using Parse.com framework (at least the name of the method hints that: PF_SBJsonParser). I'm not using SBJsonParser anywhere alone and I found using grep it's part of Parse binary file (approx 17MB) that is included into my project.

I went through lot of topics on SO and SBJsonParser seems to be suffering from memory leaks in past, also ppl suggested not to focus on libraries and rather check how does one handle the data coming from the libraries. I tried that but can't see anything abnormal that should cause that. The main issue is I'm unable to pinpoint the troublesome line of code as I'm always referred to "assembler" when clicking on the row in memory leak instrument.

I'm attaching two print screens from the memory leak instrument, any suggestions or pointers in right direction would be appreciated!

Leaks by Backtrace

Leaked Object       #   Address         Size        Resp. Library   Responsible Frame
__NSCFString        32  < multiple >    1.00 KB     Foundation      -[NSPlaceholderMutableString initWithCapacity:]
__NSCFString        113 < multiple >    3.44 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
__NSCFString        367 < multiple >    11.47 KB    Foundation      -[NSPlaceholderMutableString initWithCapacity:]
Malloc 176 Bytes    6   < multiple >    1.03 KB     MyLib           +[PFInternalUtils decodeDictionary:]
__NSCFString        64  < multiple >    2.00 KB     Foundation      -[NSPlaceholderMutableString initWithCapacity:]
Malloc 32 Bytes     13  < multiple >    416 Bytes   MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfArray:]
Malloc 32 Bytes     359 < multiple >    11.22 KB    MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfString:]
NSMutableArray      21  < multiple >    672 Bytes   MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfArray:]
Malloc 176 Bytes    7   < multiple >    1.20 KB     MyLib           +[PFInternalUtils decodeDictionary:]
Malloc 64 Bytes     21  < multiple >    1.31 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
__NSDictionaryM     7   < multiple >    224 Bytes   MyLib           +[PFInternalUtils decodeDictionary:]
Malloc 64 Bytes     20  < multiple >    1.25 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
__NSDictionaryM     21  < multiple >    672 Bytes   MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
Malloc <>           32  < multiple >    1.20 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfString:]
Malloc <>           63  < multiple >    2.53 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfString:]
__NSCFString        49  < multiple >    784 Bytes   MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
NSDecimalNumber     29  < multiple >    464 Bytes   Foundation      -[NSDecimalNumberPlaceholder initWithDecimal:]
Malloc <>           7   < multiple >    1.66 KB     MyLib           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfArray:]

Call Tree

Bytes Used  # Leaks     Symbol Name
29.42 KB      69.2% 917     -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfString:]
29.42 KB      69.2% 917      -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726       -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfArray:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726        -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726         -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726          -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726           -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726            -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726             -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726              -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726               -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfArray:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                 -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                  -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                   -[PF_SBJsonParser scanRestOfDictionary:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                    -[PF_SBJsonParser scanValue:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                     -[PF_SBJsonParser fragmentWithString:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                      -[PF_SBJsonParser objectWithString:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                       +[PFInternalUtils parseJSON:]
22.69 KB      53.4% 726                        __54+[PFNetworkCommandRunner runCommandAsync:inOperation:]_block_invoke

assembly

+0x1eb  movl                $0, -44(%ebp)
+0x1f2  jmp                 __54+[PFNetworkCommandRunner runCommandAsync:inOperation:]_block_invoke    +0x269
+0x1f4  movl                28(%ebx), %eax
+0x1f7  movl                4290952(%edi), %ecx
+0x1fd  movl                %ecx, 4(%esp)
+0x201  movl                %eax, (%esp)
+0x204  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_msgSend
+0x209  movl                %eax, (%esp)
+0x20c  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue
+0x211  movl                %eax, -44(%ebp)
+0x214  movl                4300120(%edi), %edx
+0x21a  movl                4287040(%edi), %ecx
+0x220  movl                %eax, 8(%esp)
+0x224  movl                %ecx, 4(%esp)
+0x228  movl                %edx, (%esp)
+0x22b  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_msgSend <<< marked as an issue (98.4%)
+0x230  movl                %eax, (%esp)
+0x233  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue
+0x238  movl                %eax, %ebx
+0x23a  movl                4300120(%edi), %eax
+0x240  movl                4288668(%edi), %ecx
+0x246  movl                %ebx, 8(%esp)
+0x24a  movl                %ecx, 4(%esp)
+0x24e  movl                %eax, (%esp)
+0x251  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_msgSend  <<< marked as issue (1.6%)
+0x256  movl                %eax, (%esp)
+0x259  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_retainAutoreleasedReturnValue
+0x25e  movl                %eax, -52(%ebp)
+0x261  movl                %ebx, (%esp)
+0x264  calll               DYLD-STUB$$objc_release

UPDATE

A bit of background - I have a DB class User and DB class AdListing which has an attribute "userId" (pointer to User). After bit of digging around I think I found the faulty line although I don't know how to fix it... It appear that includeKey generates quite a lot of leaks - if I comment out the second line it goes on without any memory leaks, uncommented generates the above shared leaks.

PFQuery *adQuery = [PFQuery queryWithClassName:@"AdListing"];
[adQuery includeKey:@"userId"]; // <== troublemaker
[adQuery whereKey:@"isActivated" equalTo:[NSNumber numberWithBool:YES]];
[adQuery whereKey:@"isRejected" equalTo:[NSNumber numberWithBool:NO]];
[adQuery whereKey:@"userId" notEqualTo:[PFUser currentUser]];
[adQuery setLimit: VERTICAL_SCROLL_STEP];
[adQuery orderByAscending:@"dateAvailableStart"];

[adQuery findObjectsInBackgroundWithBlock:^(NSArray *objects, NSError *error) {
    if (!error) {

        // The find succeeded.
        NSLog(@"Successfully retrieved %d scores.", objects.count);
    }
}];

Any hint or suggestion will be highly appreciated, thanks!

Answer 1

To close the topic - rewrote the code to avoid includeKey and the leakage is resolved. it seems Parse SDK is having issues.

Hope it helps people facing the same issue.