Valgrind: An Open-Source Memory Debugger for x86-linux - Julian Seward
Valgrind is a GPL'd tool to help you find memory-management problems
in your programs. You can use it to debug more-or-less any
dynamically-linked ELF Linux x86 executable, without modification,
recompilation, or anything. It works by translating x86 code to
instrumented x86 code, on the fly i.e. a virtual machine. Valgrind
can detect problems such as:
* Use of uninitialised memory;
* Reading/writing memory after it has been free'd;
* Reading/writing off the end of malloc'd blocks;
* Reading/writing inappropriate areas on the stack;
* Memory leaks - where pointers to malloc'd blocks are lost forever;
* Passing of uninitialised and/or unaddressible memory to system calls;
* Mismatched use of malloc/new/new [] vs free/delete/delete [].
Julian Seward is a Compiler hacker and open-source contributor.
Worked recently on the Glasgow Haskell compiler, GHC, which is under a
BSD-style license. Also the author of bzip2 (data compressor),
cacheprof (a tool for locating the sources of D-cache misses).
Date: Sunday 1st September 2002
Time: 6.30pm
Venue: Comlab
The meeting will (as always), be followed by drinks at the Lamb and Flag.
Comlab entrance is from Parks Road and there are maps at
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html
============
Other events
============
Thurs 29th August, London Perl Mongers
Damian Conway on Perl 6, 6.30pm,
in the Conway Hall (by Holborn tube, Central line)
http://london.pm.org/meetings/damian.html
Mon 9th Sept, 6.45pm - OS X, David Pogue - London (UKUUG)
http://www.ukuug.org/events/pogue/
Sat 14th Sept, Greater London LUG - talks still to be arranged
http://zope.linux.co.uk/20020907.html
Weds 9th Oct - Thurs 10th Oct, Linux Expo, Olympia
http://www.linuxexpouk.co.uk/ for advance registration
Next month's OxLUG probably delayed by a week to Sunday 13th October
(to Sunday 1st Week of University term)
but we'll try to arrange at least one more (mid-month) training session
before then.
As we've discussed a few times before, we're starting off a series of
talks to follow on from the Installfest. Many details of the organisation
remain to be ironed out, so get involved in the discussion on the main
list if you are interested, but for now we'll start off with the
following:
Sunday 18th August, 2002 - 6:30pm, Comlab
I'll give (probably fairly short) talk on remote access to and from Linux
(and indeed UNIX in general) with VNC and X. I'll go through how to get
the necessary software, what each can do, and how to use both with Linux
as either a server or a client (or indeed both), as well as how to use
Windows as a client.
After that we'll have a general question and answer session where
hopefully you'll be able to get advice on any problems you're having with
Linux.
The meeting will (as always), be followed by drinks at the Lamb and Flag.
The Comlab entrance is from Parks Road and there are maps at
http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html
----
In addition, just a reminder about the GLLUG Bletchley Park Trip also this
Sunday - Bletchley Park is only an hour or so's drive from Oxford so you
can come to our talk afterwards :-)
Email richard(a)vmlinuz.org if you're interested, or update
http://wiki.vmlinuz.org/cgi-bin/moin.cgi/BletchleyParkInterestList
directly if you're happy to use a wiki. (Can use comments field to
offer/request transport.)
----
Advance notice - September's beginning-of-the-month talk (on Sunday
September 1st) will be:
Valgrind - An Open-Source Memory Debugger for x86-linux - Julian Seward
Valgrind is a GPL'd tool to help you find memory-management problems in
your programs.
You can use it to debug more-or-less any dynamically-linked ELF Linux
x86 executable, without modification, recompilation, or anything. It
works by translating x86 code to instrumented x86 code, on the fly i.e.
a virtual machine.
Valgrind can detect problems such as:
* Use of uninitialised memory;
* Reading/writing memory after it has been free'd;
* Reading/writing off the end of malloc'd blocks;
* Reading/writing inappropriate areas on the stack;
* Memory leaks - where pointers to malloc'd blocks are lost forever;
* Passing of uninitialised and/or unaddressible memory to system calls;
* Mismatched use of malloc/new/new [] vs free/delete/delete [].
Julian Seward
Compiler hacker and open-source contributor. Worked recently on the
Glasgow Haskell compiler, GHC, which is under a BSD-style license.
Also the author of bzip2 (data compressor), cacheprof (a tool
for locating the sources of D-cache misses).
Internet Rights
Updating society for the Information Age
Paul Mobbs
Sunday 4th August, 2002
6.30pm, Comlab
Paul Mobbs will talk through the issues surrounding our rights
- or rather the lack of any rights - to access and use networks for
communications and organising socially.
He'll provide an update on current legislative changes and the
possibilities of people getting involved to lobby for digital
rights - e.g. the new Communications Bill.
Finally he'll also talk about the role of free software in
Internet rights and mention some specific community initiatives
such as the 'Community-Linux Training Centre'
----------------
The meeting will (as always), be followed by drinks at the Lamb
and Flag. The Comlab entrance is from Parks Road and
there are maps at http://www.comlab.ox.ac.uk/archive/ox/maps.html