With proxy, NSURLConnection leaks for https URLs

Question

Instrument reports leak for this simple use of NSURLConnection:

#import <Foundation/Foundation.h>
int main (int argc, char ** argv)
{
    NSAutoreleasePool *pool = [NSAutoreleasePool new];
    NSURLRequest *theRequest = [NSURLRequest
        requestWithURL:[NSURL URLWithString:@"https://gmail.com/"]
        cachePolicy:NSURLRequestReloadIgnoringLocalCacheData
        timeoutInterval:60.0];
    [NSURLConnection connectionWithRequest:theRequest delegate:nil];
    [[NSRunLoop currentRunLoop] runUntilDate:[NSDate dateWithTimeIntervalSinceNow:5]];
    [pool drain];
    [NSThread sleepForTimeInterval:10]; // wait for Instruments to check
}

Leak stack trace:

   0 CoreFoundation __CFBasicHashRehash
   1 CoreFoundation CFDictionaryCreate
   2 CFNetwork _getConnectionInfoForProxy
   3 CFNetwork HTTPProtocol::createStream()
   4 CFNetwork HTTPProtocol::createAndOpenStream()
   5 CFNetwork executionContextPerform(void*)
   6 CoreFoundation __CFRunLoopDoSources0
   7 CoreFoundation __CFRunLoopRun
   8 CoreFoundation CFRunLoopRunSpecific
   9 CoreFoundation CFRunLoopRunInMode
  10 Foundation +[NSURLConnection(NSURLConnectionReallyInternal) _resourceLoadLoop:]
  11 Foundation -[NSThread main]
  12 Foundation __NSThread__main__
  13 libSystem.B.dylib _pthread_start
  14 libSystem.B.dylib thread_start

It doesn't leak if the URL is just normal http and it doesn't redirect to a https site.

How do I fix the leak?

I'm using Snow Leopard and I have proxies on for both http and https.

Answer 1

I think you're asking the wrong questions. Here's what you should be asking:

1. Am I following the memory management rules?
2. If I am, do I need to worry about this?

In your case, the answers are (respectively) "Yes" and "No". It's quite possible that you have found a memory leak in the Cocoa frameworks. However in this case, I don't think you have. You see, the NSRunLoop for the current thread retains the NSURLConnection, so it's possible that you're just not giving the run loop enough time to release the connection or something.

The point is, you're not doing anything wrong, so Don't Panic.