[Question #39213]: I believe there's a memory leak; how can I test?

[Adam Buchbinder]

New question #39213 on pidgin in ubuntu:
https://answers.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/pidgin/+question/39213

I'm running Ubuntu Gutsy.

Recently, I noticed that pidgin was using around 600MB of memory (according to the VIRT column in top); I killed it, and about that much disappeared from swap--I think this means that pidgin had actually used that memory for something; it wasn't like the way a Java process will list the max allocation in its VIRT column. As I'm running a relatively low-memory system (0.5G), this is a significant problem. It had been running for at least a week, probably several; I use it for plain-vanilla instant messaging over Jabber and AIM.

I'd like to know how I can diagnose the memory leak, to file a more helpful bug report. Is there a trace tool? Some particular incantation to create a useful debug log?

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