From eaa3360e93053063336f2e4b6fc1ee94f20a4a65 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: ferdymercury <ferdymercury@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 21 Apr 2026 15:32:57 +0200
Subject: [PATCH] [io] fix memleak in TFile::Recover UPDATE mode

Fixes https://github.com/root-project/root/issues/21997
---
 io/io/src/TFile.cxx | 6 +++---
 1 file changed, 3 insertions(+), 3 deletions(-)

diff --git a/io/io/src/TFile.cxx b/io/io/src/TFile.cxx
index 6b97e04797bc4..3f51fe50873e0 100644
--- a/io/io/src/TFile.cxx
+++ b/io/io/src/TFile.cxx
@@ -2119,7 +2119,6 @@ Int_t TFile::Recover()
 
    if (fWritable && !fFree) fFree  = new TList;
 
-   TKey *key;
    Int_t nrecov = 0;
    nwheader = 1024;
    Int_t nread = nwheader;
@@ -2171,14 +2170,15 @@ Int_t TFile::Recover()
       TClass *tclass = TClass::GetClass(classname);
       if (seekpdir == fSeekDir && tclass && !tclass->InheritsFrom(TFile::Class())
                                && strcmp(classname,"TBasket")) {
-         key = new TKey(this);
+         TKey *key = new TKey(this);
          key->ReadKeyBuffer(bufread);
          if (!strcmp(key->GetName(),"StreamerInfo")) {
             fSeekInfo = seekkey;
             SafeDelete(fInfoCache);
             fNbytesInfo = nbytes;
+            delete key;
          } else {
-            AppendKey(key);
+            AppendKey(key); // ownership transferred, do not to delete key here
             nrecov++;
             SetBit(kRecovered);
             Info("Recover", "%s, recovered key %s:%s at address %lld",GetName(),key->GetClassName(),key->GetName(),idcur);