Performance Optimization and Tuning Techniques for IBM Power Systems Processors Including IBM POWER8

Analyzing malloc usage under IBM AIX

This appendix describes the optimization and tuning of the memory usage of an application by using the AIX malloc subroutine. It covers the following topics:

•“Introduction” on page 212

•“How to collect malloc usage information” on page 212

Introduction

There is a simple methodology on AIX to collect useful information about how an application uses the C heap. That information can then be used to choose and tune the appropriate malloc settings. The type of information that typically must be collected is: