Re: Examples of Name and Relationship Changes in CWE Draft 9

Steven M. Christey wrote:
> we changed the names of over 200 entries in Draft 9 alone
...
 > 401 Memory Leak
 >
 >   RENAMED: Failure to Release Memory Before Removing Last Reference
 >   (aka 'Memory Leak')

I like the _idea_ of more-specific-names, but this one isn't quite right
on two counts:

1. Many memory leaks are due to circular structures, e.g., A references
B, and B references A, yet NOTHING refers to either.  This _IS_ a memory
leak, but not by this name.

2. Memory leaks only happen if the run-time doesn't support the
necessary kind of garbage collection.  Some systems build in
reference-counting collectors, which means you don't need to worry about
releasing memory UNLESS there's a circularity.

I think what you mean is something like
"Failure to Release Memory After It Becomes Unreferenceable"

--- David A. Wheeler