MALLOC_INFO(3)						     Linux Programmer's Manual						    MALLOC_INFO(3)

NAME

       malloc_info - export malloc state to a stream

SYNOPSIS

       #include <malloc.h>

       int malloc_info(int options, FILE *fp);

DESCRIPTION

       The  malloc_info()  function  exports an XML string that describes the current state of the memory-allocation implementation in the caller.
       The string is printed on the file stream fp.  The exported string includes information about all arenas (see malloc(3)).

       As currently implemented, options must be zero.

RETURN VALUE

       On success, malloc_info() returns 0; on error, it returns -1, with errno set to indicate the cause.

ERRORS

       EINVAL options was nonzero.

VERSIONS

       malloc_info() was added to glibc in version 2.10.

CONFORMING TO

       This function is a GNU extension.

NOTES

       The memory-allocation information is provided as an XML string (rather than a C structure) because the information  may	change	over  time
       (according to changes in the underlying implementation).  The output XML string includes a version field.

       The open_memstream(3) function can be used to send the output of malloc_info() directly into a buffer in memory, rather than to a file.

       The malloc_info() function is designed to address deficiencies in malloc_stats(3) and mallinfo(3).

EXAMPLE

       The program below takes up to four command-line arguments, of which the first three are mandatory.  The first argument specifies the number
       of threads that the program should create.  All of the threads, including the main thread, allocate the number of blocks of  memory  speci-
       fied  by  the second argument.  The third argument controls the size of the blocks to be allocated.  The main thread creates blocks of this
       size, the second thread created by the program allocates blocks of twice this size, the third thread allocates blocks of three  times  this
       size, and so on.

       The program calls malloc_info() twice to display the memory-allocation state.  The first call takes place before any threads are created or
       memory allocated.  The second call is performed after all threads have allocated memory.

       In the following example, the command-line arguments specify the creation of one additional thread, and both the main thread and the  addi-
       tional  thread allocate 10000 blocks of memory.	After the blocks of memory have been allocated, malloc_info() shows the state of two allo-
       cation arenas.

	   $ getconf GNU_LIBC_VERSION
	   glibc 2.13
	   $ ./a.out 1 10000 100
	   ============ Before allocating blocks ============
	   <malloc version="1">
	   <heap nr="0">
	   <sizes>
	   </sizes>
	   <total type="fast" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <total type="rest" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <system type="current" size="135168"/>
	   <system type="max" size="135168"/>
	   <aspace type="total" size="135168"/>
	   <aspace type="mprotect" size="135168"/>
	   </heap>
	   <total type="fast" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <total type="rest" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <system type="current" size="135168"/>
	   <system type="max" size="135168"/>
	   <aspace type="total" size="135168"/>
	   <aspace type="mprotect" size="135168"/>
	   </malloc>

	   ============ After allocating blocks ============
	   <malloc version="1">
	   <heap nr="0">
	   <sizes>
	   </sizes>
	   <total type="fast" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <total type="rest" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <system type="current" size="1081344"/>
	   <system type="max" size="1081344"/>
	   <aspace type="total" size="1081344"/>
	   <aspace type="mprotect" size="1081344"/>
	   </heap>
	   <heap nr="1">
	   <sizes>
	   </sizes>
	   <total type="fast" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <total type="rest" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <system type="current" size="1032192"/>
	   <system type="max" size="1032192"/>
	   <aspace type="total" size="1032192"/>
	   <aspace type="mprotect" size="1032192"/>
	   </heap>
	   <total type="fast" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <total type="rest" count="0" size="0"/>
	   <system type="current" size="2113536"/>
	   <system type="max" size="2113536"/>
	   <aspace type="total" size="2113536"/>
	   <aspace type="mprotect" size="2113536"/>
	   </malloc>

   Program source
       #include <unistd.h>
       #include <stdlib.h>
       #include <pthread.h>
       #include <malloc.h>
       #include <errno.h>

       static size_t blockSize;
       static int numThreads, numBlocks;

       #define errExit(msg)    do { perror(msg); exit(EXIT_FAILURE); 
			       } while(0)

       static void *
       thread_func(void *arg)
       {
	   int j;
	   int tn = (int) arg;

	   /* The multiplier '(2 + tn)' ensures that each thread (including
	      the main thread) allocates a different amount of memory */

	   for (j = 0; j < numBlocks; j++)
	       if (malloc(blockSize * (2 + tn)) == NULL)
		   errExit("malloc-thread");

	   sleep(100);	       /* Sleep until main thread terminates */
	   return NULL;
       }

       int
       main(int argc, char *argv[])
       {
	   int j, tn, sleepTime;
	   pthread_t *thr;

	   if (argc < 4) {
	       fprintf(stderr,
		       "%s num-threads num-blocks block-size [sleep-time]
",
		       argv[0]);
	       exit(EXIT_FAILURE);
	   }

	   numThreads = atoi(argv[1]);
	   numBlocks = atoi(argv[2]);
	   blockSize = atoi(argv[3]);
	   sleepTime = (argc > 4) ? atoi(argv[4]) : 0;

	   thr = calloc(numThreads, sizeof(pthread_t));
	   if (thr == NULL)
	       errExit("calloc");

	   printf("============ Before allocating blocks ============
");
	   malloc_info(0, stdout);

	   /* Create threads that allocate different amounts of memory */

	   for (tn = 0; tn < numThreads; tn++) {
	       errno = pthread_create(&thr[tn], NULL, thread_func,
				      (void *) tn);
	       if (errno != 0)
		   errExit("pthread_create");

	       /* If we add a sleep interval after the start-up of each
		  thread, the threads likely won't contend for malloc
		  mutexes, and therefore additional arenas won't be
		  allocated (see malloc(3)). */

	       if (sleepTime > 0)
		   sleep(sleepTime);
	   }

	   /* The main thread also allocates some memory */

	   for (j = 0; j < numBlocks; j++)
	       if (malloc(blockSize) == NULL)
		   errExit("malloc");

	   sleep(2);	       /* Give all threads a chance to
				  complete allocations */

	   printf("
============ After allocating blocks ============
");
	   malloc_info(0, stdout);

	   exit(EXIT_SUCCESS);
       }

SEE ALSO

       mallinfo(3), malloc(3), malloc_stats(3), mallopt(3), open_memstream(3)

COLOPHON

       This page is part of release 3.53 of the Linux man-pages project.  A description of the project, and information about reporting bugs,  can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU
								    2013-04-19							    MALLOC_INFO(3)