Resource leak

In computer science, a resource leak is a particular type of resource consumption by a computer program where the program does not release resources it has acquired. This condition is normally the result of a bug in a program. Typical resource leaks include memory leak and handle leak, particularly file handle leaks, though memory is often considered separately from other resources.

Examples of resources available in limited numbers to the operating system include internet sockets, file handles, process table entries, and process identifiers (PIDs). Resource leaks are often a minor problem, causing at most minor slowdown and being recovered from after processes terminate. In other cases resource leaks can be a major problem, causing resource starvation and severe system slowdown or instability, crashing the leaking process, other processes, or even the system. Resource leaks often go unnoticed under light load and short runtimes, and these problems only manifest themselves under heavy system load or systems that remain running for long periods of time.