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

NAME

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

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

DESCRIPTION

       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 either NULL, or a unique pointer value that can later be successfully passed to free().

       The free() function frees the memory space pointed to by ptr, which must have been returned by a previous call to  malloc(),  calloc(),	or
       realloc().   Otherwise,	or  if	free(ptr) has already been called before, undefined behavior occurs.  If ptr is NULL, no operation is per-
       formed.

       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 either NULL, or a unique pointer value that can later be success-
       fully passed to free().	If the multiplication of nmemb and size would result in integer overflow, then calloc() returns an error.  By con-
       trast, an integer overflow would not be detected in the following call to malloc(), with the result that an incorrectly sized block of mem-
       ory would be allocated:

	   malloc(nmemb * size);

       The realloc() function changes the size of the memory block pointed to by ptr to size bytes.  The contents 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).  Unless ptr is NULL, it must have been returned by an earlier call to mal-
       loc(), calloc(), or realloc().  If the area pointed to was moved, a free(ptr) is done.

       The reallocarray() function changes the size of 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 NULL, sets errno to ENOMEM, and leaves the original block of memory unchanged.

RETURN VALUE

       The malloc() and calloc() functions return a pointer to the allocated memory, which is suitably aligned for any built-in type.	On  error,
       these  functions  return  NULL.	NULL may also be returned by a successful call to malloc() with a size of zero, or by a successful call to
       calloc() with nmemb or size equal to zero.

       The free() function returns no value.

       The realloc() function returns a pointer to the newly allocated memory, which is suitably aligned for any built-in type and may be  differ-
       ent  from ptr, or NULL if the request fails.  If size was equal to 0, either NULL or a pointer suitable to be passed to free() is returned.
       If realloc() fails, the original block is left untouched; it is not freed or moved.

       On success, the reallocarray() function returns a pointer to the newly allocated memory.  On failure, it  returns  NULL	and  the  original
       block of memory is left untouched.

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).

ATTRIBUTES

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

       +---------------------+---------------+---------+
       |Interface	     | Attribute     | Value   |
       +---------------------+---------------+---------+
       |malloc(), free(),    | Thread safety | MT-Safe |
       |calloc(), realloc()  |		     |	       |
       +---------------------+---------------+---------+
CONFORMING TO

       malloc(), free(), calloc(), realloc(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, C89, 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.

       SUSv2  requires malloc(), calloc(), and realloc() to set errno to ENOMEM upon failure.  Glibc assumes that this is done (and the glibc ver-
       sions of these routines do this); if you use a private malloc implementation that does not set errno, then  certain  library  routines  may
       fail without having a reason in errno.

       Crashes in malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), or free() 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.

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>.

GNU
								    2019-03-06								 MALLOC(3)