NSImage memory leak - objective-c

Question

First of all: I already searched on google and SO for solutions - none worked.
I've got an application which loads the artwork of the current iTunes track and displays it; this is stored in a NSImage instance, among some other variables, in a class:
#interface infoBundle : NSObject
#property (strong) NSImage *track_artwork;
#property (weak) NSString *track_title;
#property (weak) NSString *track_album;
#property (weak) NSString *track_artist;
#end
Then, an instance of this class is created:
-(infoBundle*)returnInfoBundle {
infoBundle* tmpBundle = [[infoBundle alloc]init];
tmpBundle.track_artwork = [[NSImage alloc]initWithData:[(iTunesArtwork *)[[[iTunes currentTrack] artworks] objectAtIndex:0] rawData]];
[...]
return tmpBundle;
}
And later used:
-(void)iTunesDidChange {
infoBundle* tmpBundle = [self returnInfoBundle];
[...]
[imageView setImage:tmpBundle.track_artwork];
}
That's eating up ~2MB (Cover size, I'd guess) per call of iTunesDidChange.
I already tried:
[tmpBundle autorelease];
[tmpBundle release];
[tmpBundle dealloc];
tmpBundle = nil;
and, after that didn't help:
- Enabling ARC.
=> Why is this eating up memory, although the object (tmpbundle) should get removed?
=> How may I achieve leak-less NSImage usage?
Thanks for any tips/suggestions/solutions :)

Answer 1

Issue
You will have a memory leak if you create your object on your method and not release it inside that method or you have to reference it when you pass it as a parameter by reference : Passing arguments by value or by reference in objective C
Your problem is that you are creating an instance of infoBundle two times, and when you are initializing another instance of it, you are leaving the first one without reference, so it remains in memory, and without connection to remove it (memory leak).
Solution
To make your things easier you should create an instance of your object
#implementation
{
infoBundle* tmpBundle;
}
Use it where ever you need it
-(infoBundle*)returnInfoBundle
{
tmpBundle = [[infoBundle alloc]init];
tmpBundle.track_artwork = [[NSImage alloc]initWithData:[(iTunesArtwork *)[[[iTunes currentTrack] artworks] objectAtIndex:0] rawData]];
[...]
return tmpBundle;
}
-(void)iTunesDidChange
{
tmpBundle = [self returnInfoBundle];
[...]
[imageView setImage:tmpBundle.track_artwork];
}
And when you are finished with that object dealloc will automatically release it if you add it to dealloc method:
- (void) dealloc
{
[tmpBundle release];
tmpBundle = nil;
}
Hope it helps! :)

Answer 2

Just modifiy this line :-
infoBundle* tmpBundle = [[[infoBundle alloc]init]autorelease];

Answer 3

I can’t tell from your code what you are doing in [imageView setImage:tmpbundle.track_artwork]; but you may be having the same problem I had.
I was using
self.imageToDisplay = [UIImage imageNamed:pictFileName];
and kept getting leaks. I switched to
self.imageToDisplay = [UIImage imageWithContentsOfFile:pictFile];
and they went away.
According to the documentation for imageNamed,
This method looks in the system caches for an image object with the
specified name and returns that object if it exists… If you have an
image file that will only be displayed once and wish to ensure that it
does not get added to the system’s cache, you should instead create
your image using imageWithContentsOfFile:. This will keep your
single-use image out of the system image cache, potentially improving
the memory use characteristics of your app.
It sounds like you have either the same or a similar issue.