Syntax: valgrind [options] <your-program> <args>

• --db-attach=yes : to automatically attach gdb on errors
• --error-limit=no : to display all errors even if there are a lot of them
• --num-callers=50 : to increase the maximum backtrace displayed

Memory checker (default tool).

Syntax: valgrind [--tool=memcheck] [options] <your-program> <args>

• --leak-check=full : to completely analyse memory leaks
• --show-reachable=yes: to show the detail of reachable memory
• --track-origins=yes : to display where was allocated the “uninitialized value”

Memory profiling.

Syntax: valgrind --tool=massif [options] <your-program> <args> ; ms_print massif.<pid>

• --time-unit=B : display results in bytes

Performance profiling, to find time taken in functions and number of calls of functions.

Syntax: valgrind --tool=callgrind <program-compiled-O2> <args> ; kcachegrind callgrind.out.xxxx ; calgrind_control

CPU cache profiling, to find cache misses.

Syntax: valgrind --tool=cachegrind <program-compiled-O2> <args>

Always do profiling with optimization options of compiler, or you could optimize things that the compiler already automatically does.