chromium has a memory leak!

No I got 7 tabs opend worth of 755MB:
about:memory
 Summary
Memory
Browser Private Proportional
Chromium
754,104k 82,757k
Note: If other browsers (e.g. IE, Firefox, Safari) are running, I'll show their memory details here.

Processes
Memory
PID Name Private Proportional
2156
Browser
80,424k 81,630k
2159
Sandbox helper
1,036k 1,127k
2161
Zygote
232k N/A k
548
Tab
Начинаются мировые продажи Microsoft Office 2010
34,128k N/A k
1235
Tab
Эпоха Windows XP закончилась - Компьютерра-Онлайн
51,448k N/A k
1273
Tab
Резкое потепление в конце палеоцена, скорее всего, произошло из-за вулканической активности - Наука и техника - Естественные науки - Компьюлента
Earth Impact Database
392,932k N/A k
2178
Tab
3,360k N/A k
2183
Tab
6,740k N/A k
2188
Tab
46,652k N/A k
2193
Tab
5,984k N/A k
2198
Tab
4,624k N/A k
2204
Tab
4,312k N/A k
2262
Tab (diagnostics)
about:memory
1,256k N/A k
28059
Tab
Журнал М. Ю. Соколова - Включающий правозащитник
122,232k N/A k
Σ 755360k
(The memory usage of our renderer processes is slightly less accurate when they are sandboxed.)

Here's top's output:

Tasks: 222 total, 1 running, 220 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 6.8%us, 2.5%sy, 0.3%ni, 90.2%id, 0.2%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1511020k used, 18864k free, 3364k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 701140k used, 937484k free, 243988k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
 1273 gene 25 5 1178m 373m 11m S 0 25.0 0:57.74 chromium-browse
28059 gene 25 5 1031m 128m 7828 S 1 8.6 4:29.13 chromium-browse
 2156 gene 20 0 730m 85m 11m S 9 5.7 43:32.66 chromium-browse
11824 gene 20 0 1465m 74m 6816 S 0 5.0 30:36.14 amarok
 1235 gene 20 0 944m 57m 8000 S 2 3.8 0:28.87 chromium-browse
 2188 gene 20 0 877m 45m 2404 S 0 3.1 11:47.98 chromium-browse
  548 gene 25 5 877m 40m 7700 S 0 2.7 0:16.78 chromium-browse
20478 gene 20 0 244m 29m 8580 S 0 2.0 0:56.84 emacs23
12424 gene 20 0 315m 24m 5156 S 0 1.6 1:18.00 python
  883 root 20 0 209m 21m 7828 S 4 1.4 64:05.00 Xorg
 2262 gene 20 0 848m 17m 11m S 0 1.2 0:01.45 chromium-browse
 9906 gene 20 0 167m 17m 1304 S 0 1.1 12:34.52 amuled
 1646 gene 20 0 395m 16m 3828 S 0 1.1 2:08.29 gnome-panel
 6712 gene 20 0 387m 11m 2244 S 0 0.8 1:25.50 gwibber-service
 7617 gene 20 0 570m 11m 3160 S 0 0.8 0:33.12 nautilus
25069 gene 20 0 98.1m 10m 1708 S 0 0.7 0:01.06 mutt
 2204 gene 20 0 846m 9944 5584 S 0 0.6 0:34.20 chromium-browse

--

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Here's what hppens, when
~$ killall chromium-browser
~$ top

top - 22:44:01 up 7 days, 1:29, 6 users, load average: 0.56, 0.29, 0.22
Tasks: 206 total, 1 running, 204 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.2%us, 0.7%sy, 0.0%ni, 98.2%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 674928k used, 854956k free, 3344k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 604428k used, 1034196k free, 182908k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
11824 me 20 0 1465m 69m 7236 S 0 4.6 30:37.51 amarok
20478 me 20 0 244m 27m 6616 S 0 1.8 0:57.32 emacs23
  883 root 20 0 208m 20m 6916 S 1 1.4 64:18.24 Xorg
12424 me 20 0 315m 19m 5080 S 0 1.3 1:18.28 python
 9906 me 20 0 167m 16m 1268 S 0 1.1 12:35.23 amuled
 1646 me 20 0 395m 15m 3864 S 0 1.0 2:08.39 gnome-panel
 7617 me 20 0 570m 11m 3080 S 0 0.7 0:33.13 nautilus
25069 me 20 0 99.1m 10m 1672 S 0 0.7 0:01.37 mutt
 6712 me 20 0 387m 10m 2328 S 0 0.7 1:25.64 gwibber-service
 1878 me 20 0 262m 9660 4104 S 0 0.6 4:32.85 gnome-terminal
 1740 me 20 0 276m 8940 4596 S 0 0.6 0:20.85 gweather-applet
 1746 me 20 0 430m 8408 4284 S 0 0.5 0:19.77 clock-applet
 1631 me 20 0 295m 7780 3304 S 0 0.5 28:11.86 compiz
 1716 me 20 0 414m 7636 4124 S 0 0.5 1:58.47 wnck-applet
 1724 me 20 0 315m 7120 3484 S 0 0.5 1:29.06 gtk-window-deco
 6779 me 20 0 108m 7104 1400 S 0 0.5 7:00.32 beam.smp
 9891 root 25 5 36756 6364 324 S 0 0.4 2:00.54 moblock

ummary
Memory
Browser Private Proportional
Chromium
312,620k 49,711k
Note: If other browsers (e.g. IE, Firefox, Safari) are running, I'll show their memory details here.

When all tabs are revived approximately, we get:

Processes
Memory
PID Name Private Proportional
2423
Browser
43,460k 48,148k
2426

about:memory
2,176k N/A k
Σ 314796k
The top's output:
top - 22:55:47 up 7 days, 1:41, 6 users, load average: 0.10, 0.28, 0.30
Tasks: 226 total, 1 running, 224 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 8.8%us, 2.0%sy, 0.0%ni, 89.3%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1143980k used, 385904k free, 8468k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 598784k used, 1039840k free, 331380k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
11824 me 20 0 1465m 69m 7260 S 0 4.7 30:39.54 amarok
 2423 me 20 0 553m 59m 25m S 11 4.0 0:35.20 chromium-browse
 2580 me 25 5 870m 58m 13m S 1 3.9 0:06.37 chromium-browse
 2497 me 25 5 862m 49m 13m S 0 3.3 0:03.88 chromium-browse
 2598 me 25 5 883m 42m 14m S 0 2.8 0:02.00 chromium-browse
 2515 me 25 5 860m 41m 13m S 0 2.8 0:04.01 chromium-browse
 2603 me 25 5 853m 32m 13m S 0 2.2 0:01.66 chro...

So, doesn't this mean that chromium has a memory leak somewhere? Well, firefiox sucks, as well as konqueror and epiphany (the latter two do in lucid at least). And I should resort once again to using the good ol' w3m?

I experimented with different browsers.
#1 is epiphany. The urls are as follows:
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=radeon+xpress+200m+resume&aq=f&aqi=&aql=&oq=&gs_rfai= http://groups.google.com/group/linux.debian.bugs.dist/browse_thread/thread/0eec8a5027b31611/eecde3138c684965?lnk=raot https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=471711 http://article.gmane.org/gmane.comp.video.dri.devel/48108 https://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=29062 https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux/+bug/305301?comments=all https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/xserver-xorg-video-ati/+bug/577340 http://bugs.freedesktop.org/show_bug.cgi?id=22140 http://www.google.com/search?q=difference+between+5955+(PCIE)+and+rc410&hl=en&ei=TpxLTKXfLsH88AaHiLA2&start=10&sa=N http://m-yu-sokolov.livejournal.com/ http://m-yu-sokolov.livejournal.com/1424245.html http://m-yu-sokolov.livejournal.com/1424245.html

Here's what we get from top:
top - 23:07:28 up 13:30, 6 users, load average: 0.12, 0.12, 0.04
Tasks: 195 total, 2 running, 193 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 2.8%us, 1.8%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.1%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1362196k used, 167688k free, 13960k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 23780k used, 1614844k free, 623160k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
 9880 gene 20 0 591m 131m 21m S 20 8.8 5:39.05 epiphany-browse
 6273 gene 20 0 1362m 124m 25m S 0 8.3 5:04.03 amarok
  925 root 20 0 231m 40m 26m S 2 2.7 6:23.10 Xorg
 1536 gene 20 0 311m 40m 6956 S 0 2.7 2:46.03 compiz
 1505 gene 20 0 261m 39m 9868 S 0 2.6 0:18.89 python
 6919 gene 20 0 169m 31m 3576 R 1 2.1 2:07.05 amuled
 6904 root 25 5 36488 28m 620 S 0 1.9 0:11.07 moblock
 1551 gene 20 0 280m 27m 8892 S 0 1.8 0:06.51 gnome-panel
 1555 gene 20 0 499m 25m 15m S 0 1.7 0:07.52 nautilus
 6283 gene 20 0 422m 19m 12m S 0 1.3 0:02.27 kded4
 6313 gene 20 0 381m 17m 10m S 0 1.2 0:00.77 kglobalaccel
 1671 gene 20 0 225m 16m 6136 S 0 1.1 0:01.86 python
 6326 gene 20 0 378m 16m 10m S 0 1.1 0:00.99 knotify4
 1711 gene 20 0 242m 15m 7984 S 1 1.0 0:24.17 gnome-terminal

--

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Here's what we get from top when firefox is fired up (with exact same url tabs):

Tasks: 199 total, 1 running, 198 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 11.1%us, 1.2%sy, 0.0%ni, 87.7%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1294900k used, 234984k free, 13072k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 25872k used, 1612752k free, 546600k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
12198 me 20 0 596m 135m 30m S 19 9.1 0:16.52 firefox-bin
 6273 me 20 0 1362m 122m 23m S 0 8.2 5:05.33 amarok
 1505 me 20 0 265m 42m 9444 S 0 2.8 0:23.77 python
  925 root 20 0 231m 41m 25m S 1 2.8 6:57.63 Xorg
 1536 me 20 0 320m 40m 7424 S 0 2.7 2:57.19 compiz
 6919 me 20 0 169m 31m 3476 S 0 2.1 2:17.04 amuled
 6904 root 25 5 36488 28m 620 S 0 1.9 0:11.22 moblock
 1551 me 20 0 280m 27m 9256 S 0 1.8 0:07.30 gnome-panel
 1555 me 20 0 499m 21m 11m S 0 1.4 0:07.80 nautilus
11607 me 20 0 256m 21m 14m S 0 1.4 0:01.09 gedit
 1711 me 20 0 252m 18m 8972 S 0 1.3 0:28.60 gnome-terminal
 6283 me 20 0 422m 18m 11m S 0 1.2 0:02.36 kded4
 6313 me 20 0 381m 16m 10m S 0 1.1 0:00.79 kglobalaccel
 1671 me 20 0 225m 16m 5620 S 0 1.1 0:02.06 python
 6326 me 20 0 378m 15m 9m S 0 1.1 0:01.02 knotify4
 1841 me 20 0 99.6m 15m 2868 S 0 1.1 0:00.86 mutt
12152 me 20 0 174m 14m 6868 S 0 1.0 0:00.30 emacs
--

Please do not send me Microsoft Office/Apple iWork documents. Send OpenDocument instead! http://fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument

Chromium:

top - 23:45:28 up 14:08, 6 users, load average: 0.28, 0.44, 0.26
Tasks: 217 total, 1 running, 216 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.0%us, 1.5%sy, 2.1%ni, 95.1%id, 0.3%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1460904k used, 68980k free, 10272k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 27588k used, 1611036k free, 453364k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
 6273 me 20 0 1362m 121m 22m S 0 8.2 5:05.59 amarok
12349 me 25 5 872m 61m 12m S 1 4.1 0:05.95 chromium-browse
12273 me 20 0 547m 60m 24m S 0 4.0 0:11.30 chromium-browse
12354 me 25 5 871m 55m 12m S 1 3.7 0:05.26 chromium-browse
12322 me 25 5 869m 50m 12m S 0 3.4 0:04.00 chromium-browse
 1505 me 20 0 265m 42m 9440 S 0 2.8 0:24.72 python
  925 root 20 0 238m 41m 25m S 2 2.8 7:07.09 Xorg
 1536 me 20 0 321m 41m 7644 S 1 2.7 3:00.18 compiz
12327 me 25 5 858m 41m 12m S 0 2.7 0:02.87 chromium-browse
12297 me 20 0 850m 37m 12m S 0 2.5 0:01.58 chromium-browse
12302 me 25 5 853m 33m 11m S 0 2.2 0:02.18 chromium-browse
12307 me 25 5 854m 32m 11m S 1 2.2 0:01.78 chromium-browse
 6919 me 20 0 169m 31m 3464 S 1 2.1 2:19.11 amuled
12312 me 25 5 850m 28m 11m S 0 1.9 0:01.61 chromium-browse
 6904 root 25 5 36488 28m 620 S 0 1.9 0:11.25 moblock
12344 me 25 5 785m 27m 12m S 0 1.8 0:01.15 chromium-browse
 1551 me 20 0 280m 27m 9256 S 0 1.8 0:07.37 gnome-panel
12334 me 25 5 847m 26m 11m S 0 1.8 0:01.14 chromium-browse
12339 me 25 5 847m 26m 11m S 1 1.8 0:01.18 chromium-browse
12369 me 20 0 850m 26m 8888 S 0 1.8 0:04.07 chromium-browse
 1555 me 20 0 499m 21m 11m S 0 1.4 0:07.84 nautilus
11607 me 20 0 256m 21m 14m S 0 1.4 0:01.10 gedit
 1711 me 20 0 252m 18m 8292 S 1 1.2 0:30.93 gnome-terminal
 6283 me 20 0 422m 18m 10m S 0 1.2 0:02.38 kded4
 6313 me 20 0 381m 16m 10m S 0 1.1 0:00.80 kglobalaccel
 1671 me 20 0 225m 16m 5620 S 0 1.1 0:02.10 python
 6326 me 20 0 378m 15m 9.9m S 0 1.1 0:01.03 knotify4
 1841 me 20 0 99.6m 15m 2812 S 0 1.1 0:01.16 mutt
12455 me 20 0 175m 15m 6912 S 0 1.0 0:00.51 emacs
12364 me 20 0 839m 15m 8896 S 0 1.0 0:00.36 chromium-browse
 1625 me 20 0 414m 14m 8780 S 0 1.0 0:03.38 clock-applet
12379 me 20 0 840m 14m 8968 S 0 1.0 0:00.21 chromium-browse
12374 me 20 0 ...

konqueror:

top - 23:51:24 up 14:14, 6 users, load average: 0.10, 0.20, 0.19
Tasks: 224 total, 2 running, 222 sleeping, 0 stopped, 0 zombie
Cpu(s): 1.5%us, 2.6%sy, 0.0%ni, 95.8%id, 0.0%wa, 0.2%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1359760k used, 170124k free, 15404k buffers
Swap: 1638624k total, 27588k used, 1611036k free, 503880k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
12506 me 20 0 730m 168m 34m R 19 11.3 0:35.74 konqueror
 6273 me 20 0 1361m 121m 22m S 0 8.2 5:05.92 amarok
 1505 me 20 0 266m 43m 9440 S 0 2.9 0:25.85 python
  925 root 20 0 233m 41m 25m S 1 2.8 7:21.68 Xorg
 1536 me 20 0 321m 41m 7712 S 0 2.8 3:02.62 compiz
 6919 me 20 0 169m 31m 3464 S 0 2.1 2:20.57 amuled
 6904 root 25 5 36488 28m 620 S 0 1.9 0:11.28 moblock
 1551 me 20 0 280m 27m 9256 S 0 1.8 0:07.53 gnome-panel
 6283 me 20 0 438m 23m 14m S 0 1.6 0:03.32 kded4
 1555 me 20 0 499m 21m 11m S 0 1.4 0:07.91 nautilus
11607 me 20 0 256m 21m 14m S 0 1.4 0:01.13 gedit
 1711 me 20 0 252m 18m 8292 S 0 1.2 0:32.20 gnome-terminal
 6313 me 20 0 381m 16m 10m S 0 1.1 0:00.81 kglobalaccel
 1671 me 20 0 225m 16m 5620 S 0 1.1 0:02.20 python
 6326 me 20 0 378m 16m 10m S 0 1.1 0:01.07 knotify4
 1841 me 20 0 99.6m 15m 2812 S 0 1.1 0:01.48 mutt
12494 me 20 0 174m 14m 6868 S 0 1.0 0:00.28 emacs
 1625 me 20 0 414m 14m 8780 S 0 1.0 0:03.42 clock-applet
 1628 me 20 0 277m 13m 8760 S 0 0.9 0:01.64 gweather-applet
 1564 me 20 0 241m 12m 7620 S 0 0.8 0:01.19 nm-applet
 1601 me 20 0 257m 12m 7852 S 0 0.8 0:14.30 wnck-applet
12530 me 20 0 171m 11m 7624 S 0 0.8 0:00.17 kio_http
12603 me 20 0 170m 11m 7624 S 0 0.8 0:00.27 kio_http
12611 me 20 0 171m 11m 7636 S 0 0.8 0:00.32 kio_http
12531 me 20 0 171m 11m 7556 S 0 0.8 0:00.30 kio_http
12602 me 20 0 170m 11m 7652 S 0 0.8 0:00.45 kio_http
12612 me 20 0 170m 11m 7636 S 0 0.8 0:00.33 kio_http
12613 me 20 0 170m 11m 7652 S 0 0.8 0:00.30 kio_http
12614 me 20 0 170m 11m 7636 S 0 0.8 0:00.41 kio_http
12615 me 20 0 171m 11m 7632 S 0 0.8 0:00.25 kio_http
 1630 me 20 0 330m 11m 7820 S 0 0.8 0:00.91 indicator-apple
 1610 me 20 0 213m 11m 7556 S 0 0.8 0:14.16 gtk-window-deco
 1631 me 20 0...

Tasks: 212 total, 1 running, 210 sleeping, 0 stopped, 1 zombie
Cpu(s): 0.5%us, 2.0%sy, 2.0%ni, 95.6%id, 0.0%wa, 0.0%hi, 0.0%si, 0.0%st
Mem: 1529884k total, 1514076k used, 15808k free, 12248k buffers
Swap: 3735068k total, 580836k used, 3154232k free, 262788k cached

  PID USER PR NI VIRT RES SHR S %CPU %MEM TIME+ COMMAND
22103 me 25 5 1153m 373m 4732 S 2 25.0 4:35.40 chromium-browse 22753 me 20 0 1019m 154m 5316 S 0 10.3 0:36.93 chromium-browse 22045 me 20 0 918m 110m 3880 S 0 7.4 1:34.16 chromium-browse 22151 me 25 5 873m 44m 4612 S 1 3.0 5:22.48 chromium-browse 22009 me 20 0 562m 36m 7028 S 0 2.4 2:33.69 chromium-browse 22098 me 25 5 855m 21m 4564 S 0 1.4 0:17.41 chromium-browse 22119 me 25 5 852m 21m 4572 S 0 1.4 0:15.01 chromium-browse 22060 me 20 0 843m 9436 4192 S 0 0.6 0:02.18 chromium-browse 22040 me 20 0 842m 9020 3796 S 0 0.6 0:04.49 chromium-browse
22055 me 20 0 841m 8092 3732 S 0 0.5 0:03.40 chromium-browse
22050 me 20 0 841m 8012 3748 S 0 0.5 0:02.97 chromium-browse
22033 me 20 0 841m 7760 3540 S 0 0.5 0:03.41 chromium-browse

       Memory
Browser Private Proportional
Chromium
736,672k 36,636k
Note: If other browsers (e.g. IE, Firefox, Safari) are running, I'll show their memory details here.

Processes
Memory
PID Name Private Proportional
22009
Browser
35,016k 36,407k
22012
Sandbox helper
140k 229k
22014
Zygote
248k N/A k
22033
Tab
4,312k N/A k
22040
Tab
5,236k N/A k
22045
Tab
99,336k N/A k
22050
Tab
4,256k N/A k
22055
Tab
4,360k N/A k
22060
Tab
5,256k N/A k
22098
Tab
Нижегородские власти стали двигать "Линукс" в массы | Вебпланета
17,432k N/A k
22103
Tab
Новая Газета | № 76 от 16 июля 2010 г. | Россия бросает миллиарды из бюджета в Windows
364,236k N/A k
22119
Tab
Экспертизу школьного "Линукса" сделали под Microsoft | Вебпланета
16,936k N/A k
22151
Tab
Свободное программное обеспечение в России - Экспертное заключение НИРО о пригодности ПСПО для школ.
41,196k N/A k
22753
Tab
Terminal Emulators | Linux Operating System - Debian, Ubuntu, Fedora, Gentoo, Arch
138,712k N/A k
29037
Tab (diagnostics)
about:memory
1,312k N/A k
Σ 737984k

--

Please do not send me Microsoft Office/Apple iWork documents. Send OpenDocument instead! http://fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument

I can't believe this does not bother other users. What if upcoming Ubuntu makes Chromium a default browser. It is too raw right now. Who would understand that a browser can hog your memory by a few tabs?

Can't believe 2 (+ a memory tab) tabs are taking 230M!!

Here's it!! When a tab (this very launcpad page) is reloaded the system monitor applet adds a small strip of green icky ( in this case :)) stuff. I am changing the bug's title then.

your gonna hate me, but I suggest you run a backtrace and file the bug upstream chromium is to much of a moving target for Ubuntu to deal with.

Please file a bug report upstream.

A useful bug report contains the following:
- brief exact steps to reproduce the problem
- what you expect to happen, what happens instead

Ten comments full of dumps from memory monitors will cause your bug to be ignored because it's not actionable.

Thanks Evan, I might do that
However, I have other things to do too. The dumps look much better in the text mode FYI. What is actionable? I gave the list of addresses to be used with command:
~$ web_browser 'string'&
It is very reproducible!

If the gargantuan usage of memory does not impress both Google and Ubuntu it doesn't appeal to me either. I've got firefox, epiphany, konqueror, w3m, lynx, elinks ....
It's not my default web browser anymore

--
Please do not send me Microsoft Office/Apple iWork documents. Send OpenDocument instead! http://fsf.org/campaigns/opendocument

Thank you for taking the time to report this bug and helping to make Ubuntu better. However, according to this report, you are not using the most recent version of this package for your Ubuntu release. Please upgrade to the most recent version and let us know if you are still having this issue. Thanks in advance.

I'm using the last Chromium 15 on my Ubuntu 10.04 64bit system, and I can confirm that leaving open some tabs, for example GMail and Google +, this leads to a memory consumption of many hundreds of MB (up to more than a GB) in few hours.

Can confirm this too.
The laptop with 6Gb RAM with chromium with ~20 tabs is swapping

I confirm that closing tabs seems not to free the memory associated with the process until all tabs sharing the same process are closed.

This memory leak is fixed in the daily build beta – they're at version 20.0.1128.0 build 135549, while Ubuntu only has version 20.0.1132.47 Ubuntu 12.04 build 144678. Being more than 30 versions behind.

Every page reload takes some memory until all memory is exausted. Closing tabs doesn't free any memory until all instances of the process are closed. Under certain circumstances, closing chromium-browser leads to an out of memory condition, reporting the browser crashed (it indeed did, but while at the process closing down all instances. This is invisible to the user.).

Maybe these bugs are fixed for the later versions (I am sure they are).

BTW: the beta-ppa for this browser states to hold daily builds. I can't confirm this. The last build installed by this channel is now about six months old – far form daily! – if it would be build daily the ppa where expected to hold version 20.0.1128.0 build 135549 as of Nov. 6th, 2012 1:13 CET.

There are at least two CVE related to chromium:

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2013-0842
more details at https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=166867

http://web.nvd.nist.gov/view/vuln/detail?vulnId=CVE-2013-0841
more details at https://code.google.com/p/chromium/issues/detail?id=169770

Both of them are expected to possible attacks against systems running chromium. Since these are fixed at releases later than 24.0.1312.56 an upgrade would be advisable!