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11. Problem 2: Memory Leaks

A program will demand some memory within a segment for storing its variables and data.

When a memory location is in use, the memory manager will mark it as being unavailable for any other process. All well and good.

A well-written program will flush all its data away once it no longer needs it and the memory manager will release that memory for other processes to use. But a badly written program will not flush its data properly and so more and more memory gets locked up. This is called a 'memory leak'. If the leak is bad enough, then the system eventually runs out of memory. Before that happens, the computer seems to run slower and slower. Usually the only recourse is to re-boot the computer to ensure all its memory has been cleared.