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In ROS1 Noetic, I have the following custom message named Test.msg:

int32 did
string a
string b

And I have another custom message TestList.mgs: Test[] testList

In roscpp, when I publish TestList objects on a topic and call rostopic echo /myTopic, the memory starts to have an increasing-decreasing pattern. Without rostopic echo enter image description here

Very important: this memory pattern doesn't occur when Test.msg has only one string typed field:

int32 uid
string a

Any number of string typed fields more than 1 will reproduce the error. Tried adding any other types of members (float32, float64, time, int32, etc), any number of them, the strange memory pattern is not occurring.

Problematic work-around using uint8[]: Found a work-around to the problem by changing string type to uint8[], which resolves the issue, but leads to another issue: ROS1 Noetic Custom messages - Command line publish char[]/uint8[] support

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1 Answer 1

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Your graph does not show evidence of a memory leak. The minimum repeatedly returns to ~35% level, so not a leak. In a modern computer executing dozens or hundreds of processes, changes in memory/swap level over time are normal.

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  • $\begingroup$ I understand, and I agree that most probably I didn't use the correct term. Although, the memory pattern is concerning: when there is only one string, the graph memory is a flat line (and there are many things running in the code using memory, publishing to the ROS topics, etc.), the only thing that makes this graph go wavy is when I add another string. I will modify the title and use other terms to describe the problem :) Thanks! $\endgroup$
    – Enikő
    Commented Dec 10, 2023 at 8:00

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