HttpClientHandler / HttpClient Memory Leak

Question

I have anywhere from 10-150 long living class objects that call methods performing simple HTTPS API calls using HttpClient. Example of a PUT call:

using (HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler())
{
    handler.UseCookies = true;
    handler.CookieContainer = _Cookies;

    using (HttpClient client = new HttpClient(handler, true))
    {
        client.Timeout = new TimeSpan(0, 0, (int)(SettingsData.Values.ProxyTimeout * 1.5));
        client.DefaultRequestHeaders.TryAddWithoutValidation("User-Agent", Statics.UserAgent);

        try
        {
            using (StringContent sData = new StringContent(data, Encoding.UTF8, contentType))
            using (HttpResponseMessage response = await client.PutAsync(url, sData))
            {
                using (var content = response.Content)
                {
                    ret = await content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                }

            }
        }
        catch (ThreadAbortException)
        {
            throw;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            LastErrorText = ex.Message;
        }
    }
}

After 2-3 hours of running these methods, which include proper disposal via using statements, the program has creeped to 1GB-1.5GB of memory and eventually crashes with various out of memory errors. Many times the connections are through unreliable proxies, so the connections may not complete as expected (timeouts and other errors are common).

.NET Memory Profiler has indicated that HttpClientHandler is the main issue here, stating it has both 'Disposed instances with direct delegate roots' (red exclamation mark) and 'Instances that have been disposed but are still not GCed' (yellow exclamation mark). The delegates that the profiler indicates have been rooted are AsyncCallbacks, stemming from HttpWebRequest.

It may also relate to RemoteCertValidationCallback, something to do with HTTPS cert validation, as the TlsStream is an object further down in the root that is 'Disposed but not GCed'.

With all this in mind - how can I more correctly use HttpClient and avoid these memory issues? Should I force a GC.Collect() every hour or so? I know that is considered bad practice but I don't know how else to reclaim this memory that isn't quite properly being disposed of, and a better usage pattern for these short-lived objects isn't apparent to me as it seems to be a flaw in the .NET objects themselves.

---

UPDATE Forcing GC.Collect() had no effect.

Total managed bytes for the process remain consistent around 20-30 MB at most while the process overall memory (in Task Manager) continues to climb, indicating an unmanaged memory leak. Thus this usage pattern is creating an unmanaged memory leak.

I have tried creating class level instances of both HttpClient and HttpClientHandler per the suggestion, but this has had no appreciable effect. Even when I set these to class level, they are still re-created and seldom re-used due to the fact that the proxy settings often require changing. HttpClientHandler does not allow modification of proxy settings or any properties once a request has been initiated, so I am constantly re-creating the handler, just as was originally done with the independent using statements.

HttpClienthandler is still being disposed with "direct delegate roots" to AsyncCallback -> HttpWebRequest. I'm starting to wonder if maybe the HttpClient just wasn't designed for fast requests and short-living objects. No end in sight.. hoping someone has a suggestion to make the use of HttpClientHandler viable.

---

Memory profiler shots:

Answer 1

Using the repro form Alexandr Nikitin, I was able to discover that this seems to happen ONLY when you have HttpClient be a short lived object. If you make the handler and client long lived this does not seem to happen:

using System;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Threading.Tasks;

namespace HttpClientMemoryLeak
{
    using System.Net;
    using System.Threading;

    class Program
    {
        static HttpClientHandler handler = new HttpClientHandler();

        private static HttpClient client = new HttpClient(handler);

        public static async Task TestMethod()
        {
            try
            {
                using (var response = await client.PutAsync("http://localhost/any/url", null))
                {
                }
            }
            catch
            {
            }
        }

        static void Main(string[] args)
        {
            for (int i = 0; i < 1000000; i++)
            {
                Thread.Sleep(10);
                TestMethod();
            }

            Console.WriteLine("Finished!");
            Console.ReadKey();
        }
    }
}

Answer 2

This is how I change the HttpClientHandler proxy without recreating the object.

public static void ChangeProxy(this HttpClientHandler handler, WebProxy newProxy)
{
    if (handler.Proxy is WebProxy currentHandlerProxy)
    {
        currentHandlerProxy.Address = newProxy.Address;
        currentHandlerProxy.Credentials = newProxy.Credentials;
    }
    else
    {
        handler.Proxy = newProxy;
    }
}

Answer 3

As Matt Clark mentioned, the default HttpClient leaks when you use it as a short-lived object and create new HttpClients per request.

As a workaround, I was able to keep using HttpClient as a short-lived object by using the following Nuget package instead of the built-in System.Net.Http assembly: https://www.nuget.org/packages/HttpClient

Not sure what the origin of this package is, however, as soon as I referenced it the memory leak disappeared. Make sure that you remove the reference to the built-in .NET System.Net.Http library and use the Nuget package instead.

Answer 4

Here is a basic Api Client that uses the HttpClient and HttpClientHandler efficiently. Do NOT recreate HTTPClient for each request. Reuse Httpclient as much as possible

My Performance Api Client

using System;
using System.Net;
using System.Net.Http;
using System.Net.Http.Headers;
using System.Text;
using System.Threading.Tasks;
//You need to install package Newtonsoft.Json > https://www.nuget.org/packages/Newtonsoft.Json/
using Newtonsoft.Json;
using Newtonsoft.Json.Serialization;

namespace MyApiClient 
{
    public class MyApiClient : IDisposable
    {
        private readonly TimeSpan _timeout;
        private HttpClient _httpClient;
        private HttpClientHandler _httpClientHandler;
        private readonly string _baseUrl;
        private const string ClientUserAgent = "my-api-client-v1";
        private const string MediaTypeJson = "application/json";

        public MyApiClient(string baseUrl, TimeSpan? timeout = null)
        {
            _baseUrl = NormalizeBaseUrl(baseUrl);
            _timeout = timeout ?? TimeSpan.FromSeconds(90);
        }

        public async Task<string> PostAsync(string url, object input)
        {
            EnsureHttpClientCreated();

            using (var requestContent = new StringContent(ConvertToJsonString(input), Encoding.UTF8, MediaTypeJson))
            {
                using (var response = await _httpClient.PostAsync(url, requestContent))
                {
                    response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
                    return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
                }
            }
        }

        public async Task<TResult> PostAsync<TResult>(string url, object input) where TResult : class, new()
        {
            var strResponse = await PostAsync(url, input);

            return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TResult>(strResponse, new JsonSerializerSettings
            {
                ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()
            });
        }

        public async Task<TResult> GetAsync<TResult>(string url) where TResult : class, new()
        {
            var strResponse = await GetAsync(url);

            return JsonConvert.DeserializeObject<TResult>(strResponse, new JsonSerializerSettings
            {
                ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()
            });
        }

        public async Task<string> GetAsync(string url)
        {
            EnsureHttpClientCreated();

            using (var response = await _httpClient.GetAsync(url))
            {
                response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
                return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            }
        }

        public async Task<string> PutAsync(string url, object input)
        {
            return await PutAsync(url, new StringContent(JsonConvert.SerializeObject(input), Encoding.UTF8, MediaTypeJson));
        }

        public async Task<string> PutAsync(string url, HttpContent content)
        {
            EnsureHttpClientCreated();

            using (var response = await _httpClient.PutAsync(url, content))
            {
                response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
                return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            }
        }

        public async Task<string> DeleteAsync(string url)
        {
            EnsureHttpClientCreated();

            using (var response = await _httpClient.DeleteAsync(url))
            {
                response.EnsureSuccessStatusCode();
                return await response.Content.ReadAsStringAsync();
            }
        }

        public void Dispose()
        {
            _httpClientHandler?.Dispose();
            _httpClient?.Dispose();
        }

        private void CreateHttpClient()
        {
            _httpClientHandler = new HttpClientHandler
            {
                AutomaticDecompression = DecompressionMethods.Deflate | DecompressionMethods.GZip
            };

            _httpClient = new HttpClient(_httpClientHandler, false)
            {
                Timeout = _timeout
            };

            _httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.UserAgent.ParseAdd(ClientUserAgent);

            if (!string.IsNullOrWhiteSpace(_baseUrl))
            {
                _httpClient.BaseAddress = new Uri(_baseUrl);
            }

            _httpClient.DefaultRequestHeaders.Accept.Add(new MediaTypeWithQualityHeaderValue(MediaTypeJson));
        }

        private void EnsureHttpClientCreated()
        {
            if (_httpClient == null)
            {
                CreateHttpClient();
            }
        }

        private static string ConvertToJsonString(object obj)
        {
            if (obj == null)
            {
                return string.Empty;
            }

            return JsonConvert.SerializeObject(obj, new JsonSerializerSettings
            {
                ContractResolver = new CamelCasePropertyNamesContractResolver()
            });
        }

        private static string NormalizeBaseUrl(string url)
        {
            return url.EndsWith("/") ? url : url + "/";
        }
    }
}

---

The usage;

using ( var client = new MyApiClient("http://localhost:8080"))
{
    var response = client.GetAsync("api/users/findByUsername?username=alper").Result;
    var userResponse = client.GetAsync<MyUser>("api/users/findByUsername?username=alper").Result;
}

Note: If you are using a dependency injection library, please register MyApiClient as singleton. It's stateless and safe to reuse the same object for concrete requests.