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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).
┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│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⟩.