diff --git a/HACKING b/HACKING
index c7df3f30510e58264c18c6d22df844ad44b6e836..e1e0b9b3a7aee13be110793f999b64a093021ef0 100644
--- a/HACKING
+++ b/HACKING
@@ -103,7 +103,11 @@ and run the tests:
   make syntax-check
   make -C tests valgrind
 
-The latter test checks for memory leaks.
+
+
+  Valgrind
+  http://valgrind.org/is a test that checks for memory management issues, such as leaks or use of
+uninitialized variables.
 
 If you encounter any failing tests, the VIR_TEST_DEBUG environment variable
 may provide extra information to debug the failures. Larger values of
@@ -118,11 +122,88 @@ Also, individual tests can be run from inside the "tests/" directory, like:
 
 There is also a "./run" script at the top level, to make it easier to run
 programs that have not yet been installed, as well as to wrap invocations of
-various tests under gdb or valgrind.
-
-
-
-(7) Update tests and/or documentation, particularly if you are adding a new
+various tests under gdb or Valgrind.
+
+
+
+(7) The Valgrind test should produce similar output to "make check". If the output
+has traces within libvirt API's, then investigation is required in order to
+determine the cause of the issue. Output such as the following indicates some
+sort of leak:
+
+==5414== 4 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 3 of 89
+==5414==    at 0x4A0881C: malloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:270)
+==5414==    by 0x34DE0AAB85: xmlStrndup (in /usr/lib64/libxml2.so.2.7.8)
+==5414==    by 0x4CC97A6: virDomainVideoDefParseXML (domain_conf.c:7410)
+==5414==    by 0x4CD581D: virDomainDefParseXML (domain_conf.c:10188)
+==5414==    by 0x4CD8C73: virDomainDefParseNode (domain_conf.c:10640)
+==5414==    by 0x4CD8DDB: virDomainDefParse (domain_conf.c:10590)
+==5414==    by 0x41CB1D: testCompareXMLToArgvHelper (qemuxml2argvtest.c:100)
+==5414==    by 0x41E20F: virtTestRun (testutils.c:161)
+==5414==    by 0x41C7CB: mymain (qemuxml2argvtest.c:866)
+==5414==    by 0x41E84A: virtTestMain (testutils.c:723)
+==5414==    by 0x34D9021734: (below main) (in /usr/lib64/libc-2.15.so)
+
+In this example, the "virDomainDefParseXML()" had an error path where the
+"virDomainVideoDefPtr video" pointer was not properly disposed. By simply
+adding a "virDomainVideoDefFree(video);" in the error path, the issue was
+resolved.
+
+Another common mistake is calling a printing function, such as "VIR_DEBUG()"
+without initializing a variable to be printed. The following example involved
+a call which could return an error, but not set variables passed by reference
+to the call. The solution was to initialize the variables prior to the call.
+
+==4749== Use of uninitialised value of size 8
+==4749==    at 0x34D904650B: _itoa_word (in /usr/lib64/libc-2.15.so)
+==4749==    by 0x34D9049118: vfprintf (in /usr/lib64/libc-2.15.so)
+==4749==    by 0x34D9108F60: __vasprintf_chk (in /usr/lib64/libc-2.15.so)
+==4749==    by 0x4CAEEF7: virVasprintf (stdio2.h:199)
+==4749==    by 0x4C8A55E: virLogVMessage (virlog.c:814)
+==4749==    by 0x4C8AA96: virLogMessage (virlog.c:751)
+==4749==    by 0x4DA0056: virNetTLSContextCheckCertKeyUsage (virnettlscontext.c:225)
+==4749==    by 0x4DA06DB: virNetTLSContextCheckCert (virnettlscontext.c:439)
+==4749==    by 0x4DA1620: virNetTLSContextNew (virnettlscontext.c:562)
+==4749==    by 0x4DA26FC: virNetTLSContextNewServer (virnettlscontext.c:927)
+==4749==    by 0x409C39: testTLSContextInit (virnettlscontexttest.c:467)
+==4749==    by 0x40AB8F: virtTestRun (testutils.c:161)
+
+Valgrind will also find some false positives or code paths which cannot be
+resolved by making changes to the libvirt code. For these paths, it is
+possible to add a filter to avoid the errors. For example:
+
+==4643== 7 bytes in 1 blocks are possibly lost in loss record 4 of 20
+==4643==    at 0x4A0881C: malloc (vg_replace_malloc.c:270)
+==4643==    by 0x34D90853F1: strdup (in /usr/lib64/libc-2.15.so)
+==4643==    by 0x34EEC2C08A: ??? (in /usr/lib64/libnl.so.1.1)
+==4643==    by 0x34EEC15B81: ??? (in /usr/lib64/libnl.so.1.1)
+==4643==    by 0x34D8C0EE15: call_init.part.0 (in /usr/lib64/ld-2.15.so)
+==4643==    by 0x34D8C0EECF: _dl_init (in /usr/lib64/ld-2.15.so)
+==4643==    by 0x34D8C01569: ??? (in /usr/lib64/ld-2.15.so)
+
+
+In this instance, it is acceptible to modify the "tests/.valgrind.supp" file
+in order to add a suppression filter. The filter should be unique enough to
+not suppress real leaks, but it should be generic enough to cover multiple
+code paths. The format of the entry can be found in the documentation found at
+the
+
+  Valgrind home page.
+  http://valgrind.org/The following trace was added to "tests/.valgrind.supp" in order to suppress
+the warning:
+
+{
+    dlInitMemoryLeak1
+    Memcheck:Leak
+    fun:?alloc
+    ...
+    fun:call_init.part.0
+    fun:_dl_init
+    ...
+    obj:*/lib*/ld-2.*so*
+}
+
+(8) Update tests and/or documentation, particularly if you are adding a new
 feature or changing the output of a program.