[gdal-dev] GetSpatialRef, OGRSpatialReference and memory leaks ?

[Andrew C Aitchison]

I would like to define GetSpatialRef() for my raster driver as something like:

     const OGRSpatialReference* GetSpatialRef() const override {
         OGRSpatialReference* poSRS = new OGRSpatialReference();
         if (poSRS->importFromEPSGA(27700)!=OGRERR_NONE)
         {
             delete poSRS;
             poSRS = nullptr;
         }
         return poSRS;
     }

Unfortunately, valgrid reports that this leaks in the "new"
on the line
    OGRSpatialReference* poSRS = new OGRSpatialReference();

On the other hand,

     const OGRSpatialReference* GetSpatialRef() const override {
         return new OGRSpatialReference("EPSG:27700");
     }

is no better:
==117785==
==117785== HEAP SUMMARY:
==117785==     in use at exit: 5,764 bytes in 24 blocks
==117785==   total heap usage: 7,363 allocs, 7,339 frees, 1,213,218 bytes allocated
==117785==
==117785== Searching for pointers to 24 not-freed blocks
==117785== Checked 3,635,216 bytes
==117785==
==117785== 596 (16 direct, 580 indirect) bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 14 of 16
==117785==    at 0x483BE63: operator new(unsigned long) (vg_replace_malloc.c:344)
==117785==    by 0x5E1D765: VRCDataset::GetSpatialRef() const (VRC.h:154)
==117785==    by 0x4ED723A: GDALInfo (gdalinfo_lib.cpp:333)
==117785==    by 0x10954D: main (gdalinfo_bin.cpp:213)
==117785==
==117785== 596 (16 direct, 580 indirect) bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 15 of 16
==117785==    at 0x483BE63: operator new(unsigned long) (vg_replace_malloc.c:344)
==117785==    by 0x5E1D765: VRCDataset::GetSpatialRef() const (VRC.h:154)
==117785==    by 0x4ED9203: GDALInfo (gdalinfo_lib.cpp:578)
==117785==    by 0x10954D: main (gdalinfo_bin.cpp:213)
==117785==
==117785== LEAK SUMMARY:
==117785==    definitely lost: 32 bytes in 2 blocks
==117785==    indirectly lost: 1,160 bytes in 10 blocks
==117785==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==117785==    still reachable: 4,572 bytes in 12 blocks
==117785==         suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks

This is with both gdal 3.0.4 and 3.1.2 on Ubunto 20.04.

-- 
Andrew C. Aitchison					Kendal, UK
 			andrew at aitchison.me.uk