Valgrind

Spec sheet

Purpose

Valgrind is an instrumentation framework for building dynamic analysis tools that detect memory and threading bugs and profile programs.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Intended users

The project describes Valgrind as suitable for programs in any language and for projects ranging from personal software to large systems, with tools largely aimed at C and C++.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Platforms

Current supported targets include Linux, FreeBSD, Solaris, illumos, Darwin/macOS and Android on specified CPU architectures; Windows is not under consideration for an in-tree port.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Integrations

The site lists front ends or IDE integrations for Valkyrie, KDevelop, Eclipse, Visual Studio Code, Neovim, CLion and Qt Creator, and says it does not test or track their usefulness.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Support

Users can seek help through documentation and the valgrind-users mailing list, but the project says answers from unpaid volunteers are not guaranteed.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Commercial support

The project lists consultants offering commercial support and says they are not rated or endorsed by Valgrind.org or its members.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Download

The current release page offers source code as a tarball and says the project does not distribute binaries or RPMs; users who do not want to compile can use their OS distribution’s download site.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Extensibility

Developers can build new instrumentation tools on Valgrind’s dynamic binary instrumentation framework.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

License and security

Valgrind is freely available under the GNU General Public License version 3; the pages reviewed do not state security certifications or compliance claims.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Memcheck limits

Memcheck does not perform bounds checking on global or stack arrays.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Memory checking

Memcheck detects invalid memory access, uninitialized values, memory leaks, bad frees and overlapping memory copies.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Performance limit

The project says programs run significantly slower under Valgrind, with slowdown ranging from 5–100 times depending on the tool.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Profiling

Cachegrind simulates CPU caches and reports cache misses, memory references and instructions by source line, while Callgrind adds call graph data.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Thread analysis

Helgrind finds data races in multithreaded programs, and DRD detects errors in programs using POSIX threading primitives.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Tool suite

The distribution includes Memcheck, Cachegrind, Callgrind, Massif, Helgrind, DRD and DHAT, plus experimental and testing tools.Read 9 Oct 2026 · valgrind.org

Plans and prices

Every Valgrind plan and price →

Where Specifiction places it

• Profiling Software#22 of 297.4