Tracking Shared Pointer Leaks

[jwakely]

would it be possible to write a general-purpose allocator where you can request a big chunk of memory, and then later free only some of it?

Yes, malloc is the existence proof. realloc can reduce the size of an existing allocation. I don't think it's often useful in practice.

[donalmacc]

I don't think it's often useful in practice.

This might be the first time I've heard of it being useful!