Background
Wikipedia defines a memory leak as follows:
In computer science, a memory leak is a particular type of unintentional memory consumption by a computer program where the program fails to release memory when no longer needed. This condition is normally the result of a bug in a program that prevents it from freeing up memory that it no longer needs.Detecting memory leaks
There are a number of techniques to detect and avoid memory leaks.A number of commerical tools such as
Redgats Ants profiler are very useful, but free tools such as
Windbg are also invaluable (
Windbg can also be used on a production server without requiring an install)