diff --git a/src/main.zig b/src/main.zig
--- a/src/main.zig
+++ b/src/main.zig
@@ -19,8 +19,8 @@
     const config: maivi.Config = try .init(init.io, init.arena, init.environ_map);
 
     if (!maivi.dev)
-        maivi.rev = init.environ_map.get("MAIVI_REV") orelse
-            try rev_str(init, config.root);
+        maivi.rev = try rev_str(init, config.root);
+    defer if (maivi.rev) |rev| init.gpa.free(rev);
 
     try maivi.init(init.io, init.gpa, &config);
     defer maivi.deinit();
@@ -45,6 +45,8 @@ try maivi.listen();
 }
 
 fn rev_str(init: std.process.Init, root: []const u8) ![]const u8 {
+    if (init.environ_map.get("MAIVI_REV")) |env_rev| return init.gpa.dupe(u8, env_rev);
+
     if (!std.process.can_spawn) {
         std.debug.print("error: version info cannot be retrieved from git. version must be provided using -Dversion-string\n", .{});
         std.process.exit(1);
@@ -56,8 +58,9 @@ "-C", root, // affects the --git-dir argument
         "--git-dir", ".git", // affected by the -C argument
         "rev-parse", "HEAD",
     });
-    const git_rev = std.mem.trim(u8, git_rev_untrimmed, " \n\r");
+    defer init.gpa.free(git_rev_untrimmed);
 
+    const git_rev = try init.gpa.dupe(u8, std.mem.trim(u8, git_rev_untrimmed, " \n\r"));
     return git_rev;
 }
 
@@ -71,9 +74,7 @@ .stderr = .ignore,
     });
 
     var stdout_reader = child.stdout.?.readerStreaming(init.io, &.{});
-    const stdout = stdout_reader.interface.allocRemaining(init.gpa, .limited(0x100)) catch {
-        return error.ReadFailure;
-    };
+    const stdout = stdout_reader.interface.allocRemaining(init.gpa, .limited(0x100)) catch return error.ReadFailure;
     errdefer init.gpa.free(stdout);
 
     const term = try child.wait(init.io);
diff --git a/src/root.zig b/src/root.zig
--- a/src/root.zig
+++ b/src/root.zig
@@ -238,6 +238,7 @@
 pub fn add_redirects() !void {
     const root = try std.Io.Dir.openDirAbsolute(io, config.root, .{});
     const contents = try helpers.read_file(allocator, root, "redirect.txt");
+    defer allocator.free(contents);
 
     var it = std.mem.splitScalar(u8, contents, '\n');
     while (it.next()) |x| {