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NAME

       malloc, free, calloc, realloc, reallocarray - allocate and free dynamic memory

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <stdlib.h>

       void *malloc(size_t size);
       void free(void *ptr);
       void *calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size);
       void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size);
       void *reallocarray(void *ptr, size_t nmemb, size_t size);

   Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see feature_test_macros(7)):

       reallocarray():
           Since glibc 2.29:
               _DEFAULT_SOURCE
           glibc 2.28 and earlier:
               _GNU_SOURCE

DESCRIPTION

   malloc()
       The  malloc() function allocates size bytes and returns a pointer to the allocated memory.
       The memory is not initialized.  If size is 0, then malloc() returns a unique pointer value
       that  can  later  be  successfully  passed  to  free().   (See  "Nonportable behavior" for
       portability issues.)

   free()
       The free() function frees the memory space  pointed  to  by  ptr,  which  must  have  been
       returned  by  a  previous call to malloc() or related functions.  Otherwise, or if ptr has
       already been freed, undefined behavior occurs.  If ptr is NULL, no operation is performed.

   calloc()
       The calloc() function allocates memory for an array of nmemb elements of size  bytes  each
       and  returns  a  pointer to the allocated memory.  The memory is set to zero.  If nmemb or
       size is 0, then calloc() returns a unique pointer value that  can  later  be  successfully
       passed to free().

       If  the  multiplication  of nmemb and size would result in integer overflow, then calloc()
       returns an error.  By contrast, an integer overflow would not be detected in the following
       call  to  malloc(),  with  the  result  that an incorrectly sized block of memory would be
       allocated:

           malloc(nmemb * size);

   realloc()
       The realloc() function changes the size of the memory block pointed  to  by  ptr  to  size
       bytes.   The  contents  of the memory will be unchanged in the range from the start of the
       region up to the minimum of the old and new sizes.  If the new size is larger than the old
       size, the added memory will not be initialized.

       If ptr is NULL, then the call is equivalent to malloc(size), for all values of size.

       If  size  is  equal to zero, and ptr is not NULL, then the call is equivalent to free(ptr)
       (but see "Nonportable behavior" for portability issues).

       Unless ptr is NULL, it must have been returned by an earlier call  to  malloc  or  related
       functions.  If the area pointed to was moved, a free(ptr) is done.

   reallocarray()
       The  reallocarray()  function  changes  the  size of (and possibly moves) the memory block
       pointed to by ptr to be large enough for an array of nmemb elements, each of which is size
       bytes.  It is equivalent to the call

           realloc(ptr, nmemb * size);

       However,  unlike  that  realloc()  call, reallocarray() fails safely in the case where the
       multiplication would overflow.  If such an  overflow  occurs,  reallocarray()  returns  an
       error.

RETURN VALUE

       The  malloc(),  calloc(),  realloc(), and reallocarray() functions return a pointer to the
       allocated memory, which is suitably aligned for any type that fits into the requested size
       or  less.   On  error,  these functions return NULL and set errno.  Attempting to allocate
       more than PTRDIFF_MAX bytes is considered an error, as an object that  large  could  cause
       later pointer subtraction to overflow.

       The free() function returns no value, and preserves errno.

       The  realloc()  and  reallocarray()  functions  return  NULL  if  ptr  is not NULL and the
       requested size is zero; this is not considered an error.  (See "Nonportable behavior"  for
       portability  issues.)   Otherwise,  the  returned  pointer  may  be the same as ptr if the
       allocation was not moved (e.g., there was room to  expand  the  allocation  in-place),  or
       different from ptr if the allocation was moved to a new address.  If these functions fail,
       the original block is left untouched; it is not freed or moved.

ERRORS

       calloc(), malloc(), realloc(), and reallocarray() can fail with the following error:

       ENOMEM Out of memory.  Possibly, the application hit the RLIMIT_AS  or  RLIMIT_DATA  limit
              described in getrlimit(2).

VERSIONS

       reallocarray() was added in glibc 2.26.

       malloc()  and  related functions rejected sizes greater than PTRDIFF_MAX starting in glibc
       2.30.

       free() preserved errno starting in glibc 2.33.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).

       ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
       │InterfaceAttributeValue   │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
       │malloc(), free(), calloc(), realloc()                          │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
       └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘

STANDARDS

       malloc(), free(), calloc(), realloc(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C99.

       reallocarray() is a nonstandard extension that first appeared in OpenBSD 5.6  and  FreeBSD
       11.0.

NOTES

       By  default, Linux follows an optimistic memory allocation strategy.  This means that when
       malloc() returns non-NULL there is no guarantee that the memory really is  available.   In
       case  it  turns out that the system is out of memory, one or more processes will be killed
       by   the   OOM   killer.    For    more    information,    see    the    description    of
       /proc/sys/vm/overcommit_memory  and  /proc/sys/vm/oom_adj in proc(5), and the Linux kernel
       source file Documentation/vm/overcommit-accounting.rst.

       Normally, malloc() allocates memory from the heap, and adjusts the size  of  the  heap  as
       required,  using  sbrk(2).   When  allocating  blocks of memory larger than MMAP_THRESHOLD
       bytes, the glibc malloc() implementation allocates  the  memory  as  a  private  anonymous
       mapping  using  mmap(2).   MMAP_THRESHOLD  is  128 kB  by default, but is adjustable using
       mallopt(3).  Prior to Linux 4.7 allocations performed using mmap(2) were unaffected by the
       RLIMIT_DATA  resource  limit; since Linux 4.7, this limit is also enforced for allocations
       performed using mmap(2).

       To avoid corruption in multithreaded applications, mutexes are used internally to  protect
       the  memory-management  data  structures  employed by these functions.  In a multithreaded
       application in which threads simultaneously allocate  and  free  memory,  there  could  be
       contention  for  these  mutexes.   To  scalably  handle memory allocation in multithreaded
       applications, glibc creates additional memory allocation arenas  if  mutex  contention  is
       detected.   Each  arena  is  a  large region of memory that is internally allocated by the
       system (using brk(2) or mmap(2)), and managed with its own mutexes.

       If your program uses a private memory allocator, it should do so  by  replacing  malloc(),
       free(),  calloc(), and realloc().  The replacement functions must implement the documented
       glibc behaviors, including errno handling, size-zero allocations, and  overflow  checking;
       otherwise,  other  library routines may crash or operate incorrectly.  For example, if the
       replacement free() does not preserve errno, then seemingly unrelated library routines  may
       fail  without  having a valid reason in errno.  Private memory allocators may also need to
       replace other glibc functions; see "Replacing malloc" in the glibc manual for details.

       Crashes in memory allocators are  almost  always  related  to  heap  corruption,  such  as
       overflowing an allocated chunk or freeing the same pointer twice.

       The  malloc()  implementation  is  tunable  via  environment variables; see mallopt(3) for
       details.

   Nonportable behavior
       The behavior of these functions when the requested size is zero is glibc  specific;  other
       implementations  may return NULL without setting errno, and portable POSIX programs should
       tolerate such behavior.  See realloc(3p).

       POSIX requires memory allocators to set errno upon failure.  However, the C standard  does
       not require this, and applications portable to non-POSIX platforms should not assume this.

       Portable programs should not use private memory allocators, as POSIX and the C standard do
       not allow replacement of malloc(), free(), calloc(), and realloc().

SEE ALSO

       valgrind(1), brk(2), mmap(2), alloca(3), malloc_get_state(3), malloc_info(3),
       malloc_trim(3), malloc_usable_size(3), mallopt(3), mcheck(3), mtrace(3), posix_memalign(3)

       For details of the GNU C library implementation, see
       ⟨https://sourceware.org/glibc/wiki/MallocInternals⟩.