NAME

       mcheck, mcheck_check_all, mcheck_pedantic, mprobe - heap consistency checking

LIBRARY

       Standard C library (libc, -lc)

SYNOPSIS

       #include <mcheck.h>

       int mcheck(void (*abortfunc)(enum mcheck_status mstatus));
       int mcheck_pedantic(void (*abortfunc)(enum mcheck_status mstatus));
       void mcheck_check_all(void);

       enum mcheck_status mprobe(void *ptr);

DESCRIPTION

       The  mcheck()  function  installs  a set of debugging hooks for the malloc(3) family of memory-allocation
       functions.  These hooks cause certain consistency checks to be performed on the state of the  heap.   The
       checks  can  detect application errors such as freeing a block of memory more than once or corrupting the
       bookkeeping data structures that immediately precede a block of allocated memory.

       To be effective, the mcheck() function must be called before the first call to  malloc(3)  or  a  related
       function.   In  cases  where  this  is  difficult to ensure, linking the program with -lmcheck inserts an
       implicit call to mcheck() (with a NULL argument) before the first call to a memory-allocation function.

       The mcheck_pedantic() function is similar to mcheck(),  but  performs  checks  on  all  allocated  blocks
       whenever one of the memory-allocation functions is called.  This can be very slow!

       The  mcheck_check_all()  function  causes  an  immediate  check  on  all  allocated blocks.  This call is
       effective only if mcheck() is called beforehand.

       If the system detects an inconsistency in the heap, the caller-supplied function pointed to by  abortfunc
       is  invoked  with a single argument, mstatus, that indicates what type of inconsistency was detected.  If
       abortfunc is NULL, a default function prints an error message on stderr and calls abort(3).

       The mprobe() function performs a consistency check on the block of allocated memory pointed  to  by  ptr.
       The mcheck() function should be called beforehand (otherwise mprobe() returns MCHECK_DISABLED).

       The  following  list  describes  the  values  returned by mprobe() or passed as the mstatus argument when
       abortfunc is invoked:

       MCHECK_DISABLED (mprobe() only)
              mcheck() was not called before the first  memory  allocation  function  was  called.   Consistency
              checking is not possible.

       MCHECK_OK (mprobe() only)
              No inconsistency detected.

       MCHECK_HEAD
              Memory preceding an allocated block was clobbered.

       MCHECK_TAIL
              Memory following an allocated block was clobbered.

       MCHECK_FREE
              A block of memory was freed twice.

RETURN VALUE

       mcheck() and mcheck_pedantic() return 0 on success, or -1 on error.

ATTRIBUTES

       For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
       ┌───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬───────────────────────┐
       │ Interface                                                     │ Attribute     │ Value                 │
       ├───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼───────────────────────┤
       │ mcheck(), mcheck_pedantic(), mcheck_check_all(), mprobe()     │ Thread safety │ MT-Unsafe race:mcheck │
       │                                                               │               │ const:malloc_hooks    │
       └───────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴───────────────────────┘

STANDARDS

       GNU.

HISTORY

       mcheck_pedantic()
       mcheck_check_all()
              glibc 2.2.

       mcheck()
       mprobe()
              glibc 2.0.

NOTES

       Linking  a  program  with  -lmcheck  and  using  the  MALLOC_CHECK_  environment  variable  (described in
       mallopt(3)) cause the same kinds of errors to be detected.  But, using MALLOC_CHECK_ does not require the
       application to be relinked.

EXAMPLES

       The program below calls mcheck() with a NULL argument and then frees the same block of memory twice.  The
       following shell session demonstrates what happens when running the program:

           $ ./a.out
           About to free

           About to free a second time
           block freed twice
           Aborted (core dumped)

   Program source

       #include <mcheck.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>

       int
       main(void)
       {
           char *p;

           if (mcheck(NULL) != 0) {
               fprintf(stderr, "mcheck() failed\n");

               exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
           }

           p = malloc(1000);

           fprintf(stderr, "About to free\n");
           free(p);
           fprintf(stderr, "\nAbout to free a second time\n");
           free(p);

           exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       malloc(3), mallopt(3), mtrace(3)

Linux man-pages 6.7                                2024-02-26                                          mcheck(3)