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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 *_Nullable ptr);
       void *calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size);
       void *realloc(void *_Nullable ptr, size_t size);
       void *reallocarray(void *_Nullable 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).   Another  reason could be that the number of mappings
              created   by   the   caller   process   exceeded    the    limit    specified    by
              /proc/sys/vm/max_map_count.

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()
              C11, POSIX.1-2008.

       reallocarray()
              None.

HISTORY

       malloc()
       free()
       calloc()
       realloc()
              POSIX.1-2001, C89.

       reallocarray()
              glibc 2.26.  OpenBSD 5.6, FreeBSD 11.0.

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

       free() preserved errno starting in glibc 2.33.

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().

EXAMPLES

       #include <err.h>
       #include <stddef.h>
       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <string.h>

       #define MALLOCARRAY(n, type)  ((type *) my_mallocarray(n, sizeof(type)))
       #define MALLOC(type)          MALLOCARRAY(1, type)

       static inline void *my_mallocarray(size_t nmemb, size_t size);

       int
       main(void)
       {
           char  *p;

           p = MALLOCARRAY(32, char);
           if (p == NULL)
               err(EXIT_FAILURE, "malloc");

           strlcpy(p, "foo", 32);
           puts(p);
       }

       static inline void *
       my_mallocarray(size_t nmemb, size_t size)
       {
           return reallocarray(NULL, nmemb, size);
       }

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⟩.