Sponsored Content
Full Discussion: memcpy error
Top Forums Programming memcpy error Post 302564730 by DreamWarrior on Friday 14th of October 2011 12:56:47 PM
Old 10-14-2011
Quote:
Originally Posted by alister
Unrelated to the segfault, there are a couple of things about this statement of which you should be aware.

In general, if you're going to multiply a number by the size of a data type, you should use calloc(). If not, you should check for overflow before passing the result to malloc(). I say in general because in this specific instance, where the number is hardcoded and the product is almost certainly less than the max value of size_t, it's extremely unlikely that it will cause a problem.
Why calloc? It zeros the memory and, as such, will touch every page allocated, forcing the kernel to actually create a physical page for it. This is wasteful, IMO, especially if you'll be writing to that memory again immediately (as he is) or, worse, if you'll be writing to the memory sparsely. Plus, I always thought that "calloc(x, y)" was pretty much equivalent to "malloc(x*y)" minus the obvious zeroing of the returned memory.
Quote:
Originally Posted by alister
Unless you know why you're doing it, it's best not to cast unnecessarily. Many C programmers do it unthinkningly, but it is a practice with zero benefit and a potentially insidious drawback: supression of compiler warnings and errors.

If the malloc implementation does not return void * (or in this instance * char), the explicit cast tells the compiler that its okay if malloc returns an int (which is not unheard of) or some other type, and, should such a mismatch occur, that you want it to silently coerce the return value regardless of its type. Such coercion can lead to unexpected behavior.

Regards,
Alister
I've never seen a malloc implementation return int, but since the compiler assumes any functions that it hasn't seen a definition for take integer parms and return int, casting is a good way to step on your foot if you forget to include the header for malloc, lol. I've seen this before, and it's not pretty when someone spends forever trying to debug a core dump due to the compilers' (mis)understanding that malloc returns int and sign extends the result badly into the pointer causing its value to be incorrect and, thusly, causing a crash. All warnings were suppressed because of the cast. (BTW, it wasn't me, lol. I was the one who noticed stdlib wasn't included, and upon me were bestowed many thanks, lol). Of course, to this day I still have to force myself not to cast the result of malloc, but that day inspired me to stop doing it.
 

10 More Discussions You Might Find Interesting

1. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

Error: Internal system error: Unable to initialize standard output file

Hey guys, need some help. Running AIX Version 5.2 and one of our cron jobs is writing errors to a log file. Any ideas on the following error message. Error: Internal system error: Unable to initialize standard output file I'm guessing more info might be needed, so let me know. Thanks (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: firkus
2 Replies

2. Programming

memcpy segfaults, but not in windows

Hi Having a lil trouble with a rather simple application I'm writing. It so happens that I have to copy some data using memcpy() and so far I've been doing just fine compiling it with VC.Net and running it on Windows XP. Now I'm trying to port the thing to Solaris (which shouldn't really be too... (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: khoma
3 Replies

3. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

awk Shell Script error : "Syntax Error : `Split' unexpected

hi there i write one awk script file in shell programing the code is related to dd/mm/yy to month, day year format but i get an error please can anybody help me out in this problem ?????? i give my code here including error awk ` # date-month -- convert mm/dd/yy to month day,... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: Herry
2 Replies

4. Programming

Problem with memcpy

Hi , I am having records in a file like 00412772784705041008FRUITFUL STRWBRRY 00412772784703041008FRUITFUL STRWBERE 00000570632801448078 X i have declared a structure like typedef struct { char Uname; char Pname; ... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: arunkumar_mca
4 Replies

5. AIX

nim mksysb error :/usr/bin/savevg[33]: 1016,07: syntax error

-------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hello, help me please. I am trying to create a mksysb bakup using nim. I am geting this error, how to correct it ? : Command : failed stdout: yes stderr: no... (9 Replies)
Discussion started by: astjen
9 Replies

6. Programming

Segmentation Fault by memcpy

Hello everybody, I'm coding a test program for ARP protocol, and i don't know why i'm getting a SIGSEGV, i traced it with gdb and it says it's due to the memcpy function from /lib/libc.so.6. Program received signal SIGSEGV, Segmentation fault. 0xb7e9e327 in memcpy () from /lib/libc.so.6 This... (5 Replies)
Discussion started by: Zykl0n-B
5 Replies

7. UNIX for Dummies Questions & Answers

> 5 ")syntax error: operand expected (error token is " error

im kinda new to shell scripting so i need some help i try to run this script and get the error code > 5 ")syntax error: operand expected (error token is " the code for the script is #!/bin/sh # # script to see if the given value is correct # # Define errors ER_AF=86 # Var is... (4 Replies)
Discussion started by: metal005
4 Replies

8. Solaris

Rpcinfo: can't contact portmapper: RPC: Authentication error; why = Failed (unspecified error)

I have two servers with a fresh install of Solaris 11, and having problems when doing rpcinfo between them. There is no firewall involved, so everything should theoretically be getting through. Does anyone have any ideas? I did a lot of Google searches, and haven't found a working solution yet. ... (2 Replies)
Discussion started by: christr
2 Replies

9. Shell Programming and Scripting

Undefined reference to memcpy@GLIBC_2.14

Dear All, I am trying to compile OpenFOAM-1.7.x in RHEL. I could not able to compile some of the applications because of libc version issues. It is saying undefined reference to memcpy@GLIBC_2.14 Can anybody look into it? Thanks & Regards, linuxUser_ (3 Replies)
Discussion started by: linuxUser_
3 Replies

10. UNIX for Beginners Questions & Answers

Print Error in Console and both Error & Output in Log file - UNIX

I am writing a shell script with 2 run time arguments. During the execution if i got any error, then it needs to redirected to a error file and in console. Also both error and output to be redirected to a log file. But i am facing the below error. #! /bin/sh errExit () { errMsg=`cat... (1 Reply)
Discussion started by: sarathy_a35
1 Replies
mapmalloc(3MALLOC)					Memory Allocation Library Functions					mapmalloc(3MALLOC)

NAME
mapmalloc - memory allocator SYNOPSIS
cc [ flag ... ] file ... -lmapmalloc [ library ... ] #include <stdlib.h> void *malloc(size_t size); void *calloc(size_t nelem, size_t elsize); void free(void * ptr); void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size); DESCRIPTION
The collection of malloc functions in this library use mmap(2) instead of sbrk(2) for acquiring new heap space. The functions in this library are intended to be used only if necessary, when applications must call sbrk(), but need to call other library routines that might call malloc. The algorithms used by these functions are not sophisticated. There is no reclaiming of memory. The malloc() and free() functions provide a simple general-purpose memory allocation package. The malloc() function returns a pointer to a block of at least size bytes suitably aligned for any use. The argument to free() is a pointer to a block previously allocated by malloc(), calloc() or realloc(). If ptr is a NULL pointer, no action occurs. Undefined results will occur if the space assigned by malloc() is overrun or if some random number is handed to free(). The calloc() function allocates space for an array of nelem elements of size elsize. The space is initialized to zeros. The realloc() function changes the size of the block pointed to by ptr to size bytes and returns a pointer to the (possibly moved) block. The contents will be unchanged up to the lesser of the new and old sizes. If the new size of the block requires movement of the block, the space for the previous instantiation of the block is freed. If the new size is larger, the contents of the newly allocated portion of the block are unspecified. If ptr is NULL, realloc() behaves like malloc() for the specified size. If size is 0 and ptr is not a null pointer, the space pointed to is freed. Each of the allocation functions returns a pointer to space suitably aligned (after possible pointer coercion) for storage of any type of object. The malloc() and realloc() functions will fail if there is not enough available memory. Entry points for malloc_debug(), mallocmap(), mallopt(), mallinfo(), memalign(), and valloc() are empty routines, and are provided only to protect the user from mixing malloc() functions from different implementations. RETURN VALUES
If there is no available memory, malloc(), realloc(), and calloc() return a null pointer. When realloc() returns NULL, the block pointed to by ptr is left intact. If size, nelem, or elsize is 0, a unique pointer to the arena is returned. ATTRIBUTES
See attributes(5) for descriptions of the following attributes: +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ | ATTRIBUTE TYPE | ATTRIBUTE VALUE | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ |MT-Level |Safe | +-----------------------------+-----------------------------+ SEE ALSO
brk(2), getrlimit(2), mmap(2), realloc(3C), malloc(3MALLOC), attributes(5) SunOS 5.10 20 Feb 2004 mapmalloc(3MALLOC)
All times are GMT -4. The time now is 08:46 PM.
Unix & Linux Forums Content Copyright 1993-2022. All Rights Reserved.
Privacy Policy