CYGWIN: Variables in memory spontaneously changing values

Some of my variables change values seemin开发者_开发百科gly unjustifiably when I change other variables in my c++ code. I've used gdb to hardware watch the memory in question and it will occur even when I just cout << "bla";

If anybody could offer ANY suggestions as how to fix this, it would be greatly appreciated! I'm stumped!

When I run the sample max memory program provided in the cygwin docs, I am told I have 1.5 GB of available RAM (which should easily be enough for the scope of this program).

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The most likely cause of a variable "spontaneously" changing value is a buffer overflow. The next most likely cause is heap corruption (or using memory after it has been free()d or deleted (aka dangling memory)).

You didn't say whether the variables that change are global, heap allocated, or local. I am guessing heap allocated, in which case the dangling theory is the most likely one -- anything that can allocate memory legitimately (e.g. cout) could grab and modify the memory you have released via free or delete.

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Have you tried using valgrind to check for memory errors in your code?