Using Massif with GNOME
Massif has very few options and for many programs does not need them. However for GNOME applications, where memory allocation might be buried deep in either glib or GTK, the number of levels down the call-stack Massif descends needs to be increased. This is achieved using the --depth parameter. By default this is 3; increasing it to 5 will guarantee the call-stack reaches down to your code. One or two more levels may also be desirable to provide your code with some context. Since the level of detail becomes quickly overwhelming it is best to start with the smaller depth parameter and only increase it when it becomes apparent that it isn't sufficient.
It is also useful to tell Massif which functions allocate memory in glib. It removes an unnecessary layer of function calls from the reports and gives you a clearer idea of what code is allocating memory. The allocating functions in glib are g_malloc, g_malloc0, g_realloc, g_try_malloc, and g_mem_chunk_alloc. You use the --alloc-fn option to tell Masiff about them.
Your command-line should therefore look something like:
valgrind --tool=massif --depth=5 --alloc-fn=g_malloc --alloc-fn=g_realloc --alloc-fn=g_try_malloc \
--alloc-fn=g_malloc0 --alloc-fn=g_mem_chunk_alloc same-gnome
Same GNOME is the program we will be using as an example. Be warned that, since valgrind emulates the CPU, it will run very slowly. You will also need a lot of memory.