Possible problem with efficient memory handling

[Gitoffthelawn]

Describe the bug
On a Windows 11 box (with an uptime of ~5 hours), I noticed CopyQ was using 167MB of RAM (according to Windows Task Manager). This surprised me as CopyQ was configured to only have a single tab (the clipboard) and there were only 25 small text items stored in that tab (no images). Tags, encryption, synchronize, and FakeVim were all disabled.

I then went into CopyQ's Preferences UI and went to its Layout tab. Out of curiosity, I checked the Hide tabs checkbox and then clicked the OK button. Task Manager reported CopyQ's memory use instantly dropped from 167MB of RAM to 25MB.

That huge decrease makes me wonder if CopyQ has an issue with memory handling or if it has a memory leak.

Version, OS and Environment
CopyQ Clipboard Manager 13.0.0
Qt: 6.8.3
KNotifications: 6.12.0
Compiler: MSVC
Arch: x86_64-little_endian-llp64
OS: Windows 11 Version 25H2
Installed via Scoop

[hluk]

I don't see such memory usage drop when selecting "Hide tabs" or toggling "Tab Tree". I see ~150MiB constantly.

Maybe it is just a way the Windows measures memory usage?

You can try using GammaRay app to see the allocated Qt objects? BTW, I was also thinking of having some stats about this built into the app (#3314 - copyq 'add(stat())' would add new item in copyq with the statistics).

[Gitoffthelawn]

Thanks for your reply.

I took a look at GammaRay's GitHub repo and read a bit about it; I haven't tried it yet.

It's interesting (and curious) that you are seeing ~150MiB constantly.

I checked on the same box as my previous tests, and Windows Task Manager is reporting just 19.3MiB for CopyQ.

I then preformed the same steps as in my original post, and the difference was not significant. I then cleared all contents of CopyQ's single tab, and memory use increased to 20.6MiB.

[hluk]

I took a look at GammaRay's GitHub repo and read a bit about it; I haven't tried it yet.

GammaRay could help to uncover some leaks, if they are related to the Qt framework or UI objects - e.g. large number of UI elements of specific type are not decreasing when reloading configuration/GUI/tabs etc.

It's interesting (and curious) that you are seeing ~150MiB constantly.

I forgot to clarify: I'm on Linux, and used some system monitor in KDE (desktop environment) - so I get likely very different values.

I then preformed the same steps as in my original post, and the difference was not significant. I then cleared all contents of CopyQ's single tab, and memory use increased to 20.6MiB.

I don't think too much data are stored in items in the memory, if there are not too many of them. Larger items do get loaded into memory only if they are currently visible on screen.

Deselecting and item (side effect of clearing a tab) could drop a lot of context menu actions. I wonder if that could be a problem. But if this causes leaks, I think you would see increasing memory while switching just between the top two items in CopyQ (this was an issue once or twice in the past - managing these Qt actions is not good).

There are also additional separate processes: one that checks which menu actions can be enabled/visible and one to run Display commands (if any are available). Not sure if on Windows the same binary gets loaded into memory multiple times (for each process).

[CactusPie]

I have the same issue, also on Windows 11, latest release 13.0.0.
My copyq.exe was using 1.5GB of RAM (some other days I saw it reach over 3GB), then after setting "Hide tabs" in the Layout settings it dropped to ~43MB. After showing tabs again it stayed at low usage, even when switching tabs or copying and pasting different history items.

It seems like it's some issue after running CopyQ for a long time. I tend to put my PC to sleep instead of turning it off, so sometimes I can have many days of uptime. I'll try GammaRay and let you know next time it happens