Object Introspection: A C++ Memory Profiler
Talkat CppCon 2023 · on Wednesday, 2023-10-04· at 15:15· Adams, 6700 North Gaylord Rockies Boulevard·
summary
Open source Linux tool reconstructs C++ types from DWARF debug data, generates measurement routines with LLVM JIT, and either injects them into a live process via ptrace-style trampolines or exposes in-process APIs with no code modification. It reports exact per-field and container occupancy, shows short-string/SSO and small-vector waste, and surfaces real wins — e.g. targeted changes that save about 1.5 GB memory saved and reduce P95 RSS by ~10%. It currently targets 64-bit x86 and works at production scale.
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chapters (8)
- 0:00Object Introspection intro
- 1:04Why object memory introspection matters
- 10:35Reconstructing objects
- 20:50Measuring memory with OI library
- 28:18Live profiling with OID debugger
- 36:46Memory optimization use cases
- 46:10OI limitations and future
- 51:31Q&A
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