Help - endless dealloc loop

Question

I am trying to harden my code to avoid low-memory crashes. I'm stuck on one in particular, which occurs according to these steps:

1. Start app.
2. Tap button that presents modal viewcontroller.
3. Simulate memory warning.

Via NSLog statements everywhere, I see that the initial (presenting) viewcontroller receives a memory warning, then its dealloc method is called over and over until a crash. For purposes of debugging, I have nothing in my didReceiveMemoryWarning, viewDidUnload, or dealloc methods except the NSLog statements.

What does this sound like? Maybe I have some retained instance variable which has a pointer back to the view controller? I just need a general guess of what could be causing this. Can't post my entire view controller code which runs into the 1000's of lines.

Thanks.

Answer 1

You indicated in your latest comment that you think you fixed a case of over-releasing the view controller, but I'm not so sure about that. Over-releasing the view controller will still cause dealloc only to be called once.

A much more likely cause of "dealloc method called over and over until a crash" is calling [self dealloc]; in your dealloc method, rather than the appropriate [super dealloc];. Check that your code is correct in this respect, there may be infinite recursion causing you issues. :)