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wtf is fbmemoryprofiler?

cdoky/fbmemoryprofiler — explained in plain English

Analysis updated 2026-07-18 · repo last pushed 2016-04-15

Objective-CAudience · developerComplexity · 3/5DormantSetup · moderate

TL;DR

An in-app iOS debugging tool from Facebook that shows a live view of memory usage, tracks object creation over time, and flags retain cycles wasting memory.

Mindmap

mindmap
  root((repo))
    What it does
      Shows memory usage
      Tracks generations
      Finds retain cycles
    Tech stack
      Objective-C
      FBAllocationTracker
      FBRetainCycleDetector
    Use cases
      Debug memory bloat
      Find leaking objects
      Extend with plugins
    Audience
      iOS developers
      Facebook engineers

Code map

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filefunction / class

Why would anyone build with this?

REASON 1

Enable an in-app button to inspect all objects currently held in memory while testing a feature.

REASON 2

Track memory usage across app 'generations' to see what changed between two points in time.

REASON 3

Detect retain cycles that are silently wasting memory or causing slowdowns.

REASON 4

Write a custom plugin to log memory data to a server or auto-clean specific caches.

What's in the stack?

Objective-CiOS

How it stacks up

cdoky/fbmemoryprofileradispring/mapios8cdoky/yytext
LanguageObjective-CObjective-CObjective-C
Last pushed2016-04-152014-12-112021-11-30
MaintenanceDormantDormantDormant
Setup difficultymoderateeasymoderate
Complexity3/52/53/5
Audiencedeveloperdeveloperdeveloper

Figures from each repo's GitHub metadata at analysis time.

How do you spin it up?

Difficulty · moderate Time to first run · 30min

Designed for Debug builds only, README doesn't fully document the visual interface.

Yoink these prompts

Prompt 1
Show me how to add FBMemoryProfiler to a Debug build of my iOS app.
Prompt 2
Explain how FBMemoryProfiler's generations feature lets me compare memory snapshots over time.
Prompt 3
How does FBMemoryProfiler use FBRetainCycleDetector to find memory leaks in my app?
Prompt 4
Walk me through writing a custom plugin for FBMemoryProfiler to log memory data to a server.

Frequently asked questions

wtf is fbmemoryprofiler?

An in-app iOS debugging tool from Facebook that shows a live view of memory usage, tracks object creation over time, and flags retain cycles wasting memory.

What language is fbmemoryprofiler written in?

Mainly Objective-C. The stack also includes Objective-C, iOS.

Is fbmemoryprofiler actively maintained?

Dormant — no commits in 2+ years (last push 2016-04-15).

How hard is fbmemoryprofiler to set up?

Setup difficulty is rated moderate, with roughly 30min to a first successful run.

Who is fbmemoryprofiler for?

Mainly developer.

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