I am getting LEAK: ByteBuf.release() was not called before it's garbage-collected. See http://netty.io/wiki/reference-counted-objects.html

Question

Following is the stack trace:

Created at:
    io.netty.buffer.CompositeByteBuf.<init>(CompositeByteBuf.java:63)
    io.netty.buffer.AbstractByteBufAllocator.compositeDirectBuffer(AbstractByteBufAllocator.java:191)
    io.netty.buffer.AbstractByteBufAllocator.compositeBuffer(AbstractByteBufAllocator.java:169)
    io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpObjectAggregator.decode(HttpObjectAggregator.java:184)
    io.netty.handler.codec.http.HttpObjectAggregator.decode(HttpObjectAggregator.java:57)
    io.netty.handler.codec.MessageToMessageDecoder.channelRead(MessageToMessageDecoder.java:89)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:308)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:294)
    io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:249)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:308)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:294)
    io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:244)
    io.netty.channel.CombinedChannelDuplexHandler.channelRead(CombinedChannelDuplexHandler.java:147)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:308)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:294)
    io.netty.handler.ssl.SslHandler.unwrap(SslHandler.java:1107)
    io.netty.handler.ssl.SslHandler.decode(SslHandler.java:965)
    io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.callDecode(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:327)
    io.netty.handler.codec.ByteToMessageDecoder.channelRead(ByteToMessageDecoder.java:230)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.invokeChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:308)
    io.netty.channel.AbstractChannelHandlerContext.fireChannelRead(AbstractChannelHandlerContext.java:294)
    io.netty.channel.DefaultChannelPipeline.fireChannelRead(DefaultChannelPipeline.java:846)
    io.netty.channel.nio.AbstractNioByteChannel$NioByteUnsafe.read(AbstractNioByteChannel.java:131)
    io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKey(NioEventLoop.java:511)
    io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeysOptimized(NioEventLoop.java:468)
    io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.processSelectedKeys(NioEventLoop.java:382)
    io.netty.channel.nio.NioEventLoop.run(NioEventLoop.java:354)
    io.netty.util.concurrent.SingleThreadEventExecutor$2.run(SingleThreadEventExecutor.java:112)
    io.netty.util.concurrent.DefaultThreadFactory$DefaultRunnableDecorator.run(DefaultThreadFactory.java:137)
    java.lang.Thread.run(Thread.java:748)

I have used version 4.0.31.Final & even getting same leak in latest version netty-4.1.29.Final as per https://netty.io/downloads.html. Any updates appreciated.

Answer 1

httpRequest.release() seems to work fine. httpRequest is handled in the form of object we need to release that object.