Memory Leak in router / di

[fragsalat]

I'm submitting a bug report

• Library Version: 1.6.2

Please tell us about your environment:

• Operating System: Ubuntu 18.04

• Node Version: 10.7.0

• NPM Version: 6.1.0

• JSPM OR Webpack AND Version webpack used by aurelia cli

• Browser: all

• Language: ESNext

Current behavior: Custom elements are not cleaned up by the garbage collector because the router / container doesn't release the references. Therefore every time the page is shown a new instance of the custom element is rendered. An example path looks like instruction.viewPortInstructions.default.controller.view.controllers[0].viewModel = CustomElement

Expected/desired behavior: Custom elements should be de-referenced when calling unbind or deactivate so that the garbage collector can clean them up regardless how many times I navigate back and forward.

Helpful: I prepared and tested based on a clean aurelia cli setup and just submitting everything. I uploaded the project here https://github.com/fragsalat/demos/tree/master/aurelia-memory-leak

How to reproduce:

• open http://localhost:8080
• take heap snapshot
• navigate to page2
• take heap snapshot
  • search for TestComponent
  • It's still there and referenced even if we left the previous page
• go back to page1
• take another heap snapshot
• compare difference between snapshot 1 and 3
  • search for TestComponent
  • You can see a delta of +1 and a deletion of 0

I hope you know what would be a good solution. In my application several custom elements have a big tree and every page reload around 3mb are added to the heap^^

[3cp]

I am no expert of this, but I think I can reproduce the issue, seeing JS Heap keep growing.

[fragsalat]

@EisenbergEffect @davismj ping

PS: @EisenbergEffect it would be nice to have a maintainers file in each repo to know who's responsible and to not ping you for every issue :D

[EisenbergEffect]

This is a good idea. @davismj is it ok if I list your GitHub alias as lead for this repo with @bigopon as a second?

[EisenbergEffect]

For vNext, we'll probably be able to take advantage of protected branches and code owners better as well. In both cases, we can document the primary contacts though.

[fragsalat]

I actually could find out that the cause of the memory leak is bluebird and not the router. Bluebird holds the navigationInstructions in a CaptureTrace object which is not cleared up.

[davismj]

@EisenbergEffect Yes, of course.

@fragsalat Thanks for the update! Appreciate the follow up.

[3cp]

@fragsalat do you have a bug report to bluebird? or do you have some work around in aurelia app? Since majority of aurelia apps use bluebird, this could affect many users.

[fragsalat]

I just removed Bluebird as I don't need and like it anyway^^ Sry I've not searched for another solution.