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MALLOC(3C)							    MALLOC(3C)

NAME
       malloc,	calloc, free, memalign, realloc, valloc, alloca - memory allo‐
       cator

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdlib.h>

       void *malloc(size_t size);

       void *calloc(size_t nelem, size_t elsize);

       void free(void *ptr);

       void *memalign(size_t alignment, size_t size);

       void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size);

       void *valloc(size_t size);

       #include <alloca.h>

       void *alloca(size_t size);

DESCRIPTION
       The malloc() and free() functions  provide  a  simple,  general-purpose
       memory allocation package. The malloc() function returns a pointer to a
       block of at least size bytes suitably aligned for any use. If the space
       assigned by malloc() is overrun, the results are undefined.

       The  argument to free() is a pointer to a block previously allocated by
       malloc(), calloc(), or realloc(). After free() is executed, this	 space
       is made available for further allocation by the application, though not
       returned to the system. Memory is returned to the system only upon ter‐
       mination	 of  the  application.	If   ptr  is a null pointer, no action
       occurs. If a random number is passed to free(), the results  are	 unde‐
       fined.

       The calloc() function allocates space for an array of nelem elements of
       size elsize. The space is initialized to zeros.

       The memalign() function allocates size bytes on a  specified  alignment
       boundary and returns a pointer to the allocated block. The value of the
       returned address is guaranteed to be an	even  multiple	of  alignment.
       The  value of alignment must be a power of two and must be greater than
       or equal to the size of a word.

       The realloc() function changes the size of the block pointed to by  ptr
       to  size bytes and returns a pointer to the (possibly moved) block. The
       contents will be unchanged up to the lesser of the new and  old	sizes.
       If  the new size of the block requires movement of the block, the space
       for the previous instantiation of the block is freed. If the  new  size
       is larger, the contents of the newly allocated portion of the block are
       unspecified. If ptr is NULL, realloc() behaves like  malloc()  for  the
       specified  size.	 If size is 0 and ptr is not a null pointer, the space
       pointed to is freed.

       The valloc() function has the same effect as malloc(), except that  the
       allocated memory will be aligned to a multiple of the value returned by
       sysconf(_SC_PAGESIZE).

       The alloca() function allocates size bytes of space in the stack	 frame
       of  the caller, and returns a pointer to the allocated block. This tem‐
       porary space is automatically freed when the  caller  returns.  If  the
       allocated block is beyond the current stack limit, the resulting behav‐
       ior is undefined.

RETURN VALUES
       Upon successful completion, each of the allocation functions returns  a
       pointer to space suitably aligned (after possible pointer coercion) for
       storage of any type of object.

       If there is no available memory, malloc(), realloc(), memalign(),  val‐
       loc(),  and  calloc()  return a null pointer.  When realloc() is called
       with size > 0 and returns NULL, the block pointed to  by	 ptr  is  left
       intact.	If  size,  nelem,  or  elsize is 0, either a null pointer or a
       unique pointer that can be passed to free() is returned.

       If malloc(), calloc(), or realloc() returns unsuccessfully, errno  will
       be set to indicate the error. The free() function does not set errno.

ERRORS
       The malloc(), calloc(), and realloc() functions will fail if:

       ENOMEM
		 The  physical limits of the system are exceeded by size bytes
		 of memory which cannot be allocated.

       EAGAIN
		 There is not enough memory available to allocate  size	 bytes
		 of memory; but the application could try again later.

USAGE
       Portable	 applications  should  avoid using valloc() but should instead
       use malloc() or mmap(2). On systems with a large page size, the	number
       of successful valloc() operations might be 0.

       These  default  memory  allocation  routines are safe for use in multi‐
       threaded applications but are not scalable. Concurrent accesses by mul‐
       tiple  threads  are  single-threaded  through the use of a single lock.
       Multithreaded applications that make heavy use of dynamic memory	 allo‐
       cation  should be linked with allocation libraries designed for concur‐
       rent access, such as libumem(3LIB) or  libmtmalloc(3LIB).  Applications
       that  want  to  avoid using heap allocations (with brk(2)) can do so by
       using either libumem or libmapmalloc(3LIB).  The	 allocation  libraries
       libmalloc(3LIB) and libbsdmalloc(3LIB) are available for special needs.

       Comparative  features  of the various allocation libraries can be found
       in the umem_alloc(3MALLOC) manual page.

ATTRIBUTES
       See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes:

       ┌────────────────────┬─────────────────┐
       │  ATTRIBUTE TYPE    │ ATTRIBUTE VALUE │
       ├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │Interface Stability │ See below.      │
       ├────────────────────┼─────────────────┤
       │MT-Level	    │ Safe	      │
       └────────────────────┴─────────────────┘

       The malloc(), calloc(), free(), realloc(), valloc() functions are Stan‐
       dard. The memalign() and alloca() functions are Stable.

SEE ALSO
       brk(2),	getrlimit(2),  libbsdmalloc(3LIB), libmalloc(3LIB), libmapmal‐
       loc(3LIB),   libmtmalloc(3LIB),	 libumem(3LIB),	  umem_alloc(3MALLOC),
       watchmalloc(3MALLOC), attributes(5)

WARNINGS
       Undefined  results will occur if the size requested for a block of mem‐
       ory exceeds the maximum size of a process's heap, which can be obtained
       with getrlimit(2)

       The  alloca() function is machine-, compiler-, and most of all, system-
       dependent. Its use is strongly discouraged.

				 Mar 21, 2005			    MALLOC(3C)
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