musescore / musescore/MuseScore
Memory leaks in instrument ownership model
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- Dominant language
- C++
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Description
Multiple memory leaks and crashes exist in instrument management:
Memory leaks: Part destructor missing, instruments never freed
Double-free risk: InstrumentChange deletes shared pointers
Use-after-free: setInstruments({}) after shallow-copy leaves dangling pointers
EID assertion: No idempotent registration check causes crashes on memory reuse
Thread-safety: Parallel excerpt serialization races on MIDI mapping
Root cause:
No ownership model for Instrument pointers shared between InstrumentChange and Part::m_instruments.
Checklist
- This report follows the guidelines for reporting bugs and issues
- I have verified that this issue has not been logged before, by searching the issue tracker for similar issues
- I have attached all requested files and information to this report
- I have attempted to identify the root problem as concisely as possible, and have used minimal reproducible examples where possible
Contributor guide
First steps
- Read the whole issue, then the project's contributing guide.
- Comment on the issue to say you are picking it up — it saves two people doing the same work.
- Fork the repository and make your change on a branch.
- Open a pull request that references the issue number.
Research direction
The report names no files or tests. Start by locating Part, InstrumentChange, Part::m_instruments, and the excerpt serialization path, then trace pointer ownership and concurrent MIDI mapping access. Done requires resolving the listed leaks, double-free and use-after-free risks, registration assertion, and serialization race with regression coverage.
Written by the indexing model from the issue text.
Assessment
- Tech stack
- cpp
- Domain
- desktop-dev
- Issue type
- Bug
- Difficulty
- 5/5
- Estimated time
- Over a week
- Activity status
- Stale
- Clarity
- Needs clarification
- Newbie friendliness
- 25/100