Mac OS X Sierra: detect_leaks is not supported on this platform

[ZedZipDev]

I have Mac OS X Sierra 10.13
and do as described here:
https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerLeakSanitizer

$ cat memory-leak.c
#include <stdlib.h>
void *p;
int main() {
p = malloc(7);
p = 0; // The memory is leaked here.
return 0;
}
% clang -fsanitize=address -g memory-leak.c ; ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=1 ./a.out
==23646==ERROR: LeakSanitizer: detected memory leaks
Direct leak of 7 byte(s) in 1 object(s) allocated from:
#0 0x4af01b in __interceptor_malloc /projects/compiler-rt/lib/asan/asan_malloc_linux.cc:52:3
#1 0x4da26a in main memory-leak.c:4:7
#2 0x7f076fd9cec4 in __libc_start_main libc-start.c:287
SUMMARY: AddressSanitizer: 7 byte(s) leaked in 1 allocation(s).

But receive the message:

admins-Mac:test2 admin$ clang -fsanitize=address -g mleak.c ; ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=1 ./a.out
==556==AddressSanitizer: detect_leaks is not supported on this platform.
Abort trap: 6
admins-Mac:test2 admin$ 

What I do incorrent?

[kcc]

@kubamracek

[kubamracek]

If you're using Apple Clang (the one that comes with Xcode) then this is expected. LSan isn't mature enough on macOS and is unsupported.

You can build Clang from open-source to experiment with LSan on macOS.

[tevariou]

Any update on that ? It doesn't seem to work on Catalina neither after building clang with brew.

[fatfatson]

it still doesn't work at 2020..

[morrisonlevi]

Apple clang version 12.0 (which comes on Catalina) doesn't support detect_leaks either.

Anyone know if Big Sur supports it?

[nickwilliams-zaxiom]

I'm also getting this error (on 10.15.7 Catalina with Apple clang version 12.0.0 (clang-1200.0.32.21)), and I'm confused by this bug report for a couple reasons:

This documentation says you can use detect_leaks=1 to enable leak detection on macOS: https://clang.llvm.org/docs/AddressSanitizer.html

The leak detection is turned on by default on Linux, and can be enabled using ASAN_OPTIONS=detect_leaks=1 on macOS; however, it is not yet supported on other platforms.

Is this documentation wrong?

Also, I was using detect_leaks=1 successfully on this same machine and compiler version two months ago, and suddenly it's not working. 🤔

Can anyone clear up exactly what the status is and what's necessary to make it work?

And, related, should I / can I use both -fsanitize=address -fsanitize=leak, or do I have to pick one or the other?

[bwesen]

Ran into this here now (2021), I'm following the instructions that say it works on Mac OSX..

If it simply is the case that the Apple-provided clang really does not support this, I think it should be updated in

https://github.com/google/sanitizers/wiki/AddressSanitizerLeakSanitizer

otherwise people will continue to read "it works on Mac OSX". Building your own compiler toolchain (if that is a requirement) is not one of the most common things you do and might be good to state that it's not supported on the typical mac osx developer setup otherwise.

[alexyalunin]

If you use clion try this

In Preferences | Build, Execution, Deployment | CMake -> Cmake options use

-DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=ASAN -DCMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/local/opt/llvm/bin/clang++
and

[sc1f]

Running Big Sur 11.5.2 (20G95) and Apple clang version 13.0.0 (clang-1300.0.29.3) for x86_64-apple-darwin20.6.0, detect_leaks=1 still breaks with "detect_leaks is not supported on this platform".

Instruments, which is installed with XCode, can be launched separately against your running process in order to check for allocations and leaks. I am not sure how accurate it is since I can't run detect_leaks but it might be handy in a pinch.

To launch Instruments, right click on XCode and select "show package contents", then navigate to /Applications inside the XCode folder and click on "Instruments".