I'm not noticing any perceptible problems, but Activity Monitor does report significantly higher usage for me as well. 71MB vs. 251MB.

I would think since the entire book is loaded into memory, this might account for why our two figures are vastly different.

I'm also using 10.13.4 but tested with GnuCash 3.1 Build ID: 3.0-118-gd2ef5fd0f+ (2018-04-28)

Our data is big enough. Nine years of entries, a large chart of accounts, and lots of reports opened on start-up. You know... We are a SME...

However, our data does not cause any inconvenience in the past and, in my opinion, should not cause any trouble in future versions.

As your test has proven, the memory usage has increased from previous versions. A ratio of 5-6x times appears in your computer too.

Of course, since your memory usage is lower than ours, you do not notice anything. But the problem is there.

Thank for providing further evidence, Adrien.

While not as good as the 71MB from the 2.6 series, I now see memory usage is down to about 147MB from the earlier reported 251MB.

A 41% improvement! (though still slightly more than double 2.6.x)

Are you both using the SQL backend (IIRC Adrien is using SQLite3)? 

Using the Leaks tool in Instruments (part of Xcode) I see that libdbi and libsqlite3 seem to be leaking profusely, so that memory usage is about 3x the data size compared to the same data exported to XML and then reloaded afresh.

I'm using SQLite3 now as of 3.2.

I just tested again, both XML and SQLite with only the CoA open and no other dialogs:

XML file size: 905KB
XML memory use: ≈101.6MB

SQLite file size: 7.2MB
SQLite memory use: ≈102.8MB

I see both slightly jump around by a few 100KB or so here and there even without moving the mouse or doing anything at all.

So both are much lighter than I reported yesterday and are nearly identical to each other in usage. (I think I had several tabs open)

I have 16GB to play with so I'm certainly not having any issues—just offering data.

GnuCash 3.3 comes with fixes for several memory leaks. A large book that opened at about 1Gb of memory in gnucash 3.2 has now dropped back to about 300Mb and the memory increase while running is greatly reduced.

Please test with this version and report your findings here.

Yep. GnuCash 3.3 has lowered the memory use to 530 Mb from 1.45 Gb in version 3.0. A big improvement!

In our case, side by side, Gnucash 2.6.21 uses over 340 Mb while 3.3 needs 530, a ratio of 1.5 times more --instead of the 5-6X ratio when version 3 was launched.

Well done!

It is still 200 Mb more than previous version but we can live with this.

It is time to switch to version 3. Thanks.

Hi,

As soon as we have started to use GnuCash 3 in a daily basis the memory issue has re-emerged.

The memory abuse is, most probably, caused by the report engine, which I think has been changed from Guile-1.8 to Guile-2.2.

When the app is launching, it only generates one report tab in each window --the tab in focus. That means that if we have several report tabs in a window --which is the case--, it just generates the first one and the rest remain blank until they receive the focus.

As we switch from tab to tab, reports are generated and the memory use explodes. From initial 530 Mb memory use, it has roused up to 1.6 Gb. No real improvement indeed.

Tricky but not a real solution, I think. Not to mention the time wasted on waiting for a report generation --zero time delay in version 2; several not trivial seconds in version 3.

I think that Guile-2.2 has worsened GnuCash memory use and user experience without real benefit --at least, in our case.

Downgrading to GnuCash 2 again.

Well, actually, the guile engine has been upgraded from version 2.0 to 2.2.

(In reply to veigajose from comment #9)
> Well, actually, the guile engine has been upgraded from version 2.0 to 2.2.

I have made an experiment: replace guile 2.2 in GnuCash 3 with guile 2.0.

The app has run in a similar fashion: any crash on reporting, just report tab on focus was generated at first, and similar memory use. There is a slight differences in memory use: GnuCash 3 with guile 2.0 uses 1.2 Gb while guile 2.2 reserves 1.6 Gb.

My guess: perhaps memory use is related to how guile is used in GnuCash 3 rather than which version of guile is actually in use.

The Guile-2.0->2.2 change is in 3.3, the 1.8->2.0 change in 2.6.4.

Aside from the 33% increase in memory footprint between Guile2.0 and 2.2 that you found, I think the most likely culprit is either Gtk3 or WebKit. While the WebKit version is unchanged (because I couldn't get the Javascript engine to talk to the WebKitGtkWebView on Mac), the drawing code in WebKit 2.4 will be different for Gtk2 and Gtk3.

How many reports do you typically have open? Do you notice any difference in memory footprint between different report types? What kind of Mac do you have?

Hi, John.

We regularly work with about 50-60 per session. Some are loaded at the beginning and some others are generated during each session.

However, for comparison purposes, it is the same number in both version 2 and 3. So, more or less, the memory use should be similar --not 5-6 times worse. Opening more reports just worsens the symptoms but the memory leaks are there regardless of the number of reports loaded.

I can really detail whether some kind of reports are behaving differently than others or not. I do not know how to check that kind of in-depth performance.

My systeme is currently macOs 10.13.6 (High Sierra)
I am comparing GnuCash 3.3+ (2018-09-29) versus GnuCash 2.6.21 (rev 868489b1c+ on 2018-04-10)

May I provide some additional information?

Yes, what *kind* of Mac, not what version of MacOS. E.g., MacBook Pro Retina late 2016, iMac 21" late 2012, etc. I'm particularly interested in whether you have a Retina display.

I see... No Retina display. An iMac 27inch late 2013 (iMac14,2).