OpenDarwin 7.2.1 - man page for tcl_attemptalloc (opendarwin section 3)

Tcl_Alloc(3)			      Tcl Library Procedures			     Tcl_Alloc(3)

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NAME
       Tcl_Alloc,  Tcl_Free,  Tcl_Realloc, Tcl_AttemptAlloc, Tcl_AttemptRealloc, ckalloc, ckfree,
       ckrealloc, attemptckalloc, attemptckrealloc - allocate or free heap memory

SYNOPSIS
       #include <tcl.h>

       char *
       Tcl_Alloc(size)

       void
       Tcl_Free(ptr)

       char *
       Tcl_Realloc(ptr, size)

       char *
       Tcl_AttemptAlloc(size)

       char *
       Tcl_AttemptRealloc(ptr, size)

       char *
       ckalloc(size)

       void
       ckfree(ptr)

       char *
       ckrealloc(ptr, size)

       char *
       attemptckalloc(size)

       char *
       attemptckrealloc(ptr, size)

ARGUMENTS
       int    size    (in)	Size in bytes of the memory block to allocate.

       char   *ptr    (in)	Pointer to memory block to free or realloc.
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DESCRIPTION
       These procedures provide a platform and compiler independent interface for memory  alloca-
       tion.   Programs  that  need  to transfer ownership of memory blocks between Tcl and other
       modules should use these routines rather than the native malloc() and free() routines pro-
       vided by the C run-time library.

       Tcl_Alloc  returns  a  pointer  to a block of at least size bytes suitably aligned for any
       use.

       Tcl_Free makes the space referred to by ptr available for further allocation.

       Tcl_Realloc changes the size of the block pointed to by ptr to size bytes  and  returns	a
       pointer	to the new block.  The contents will be unchanged up to the lesser of the new and
       old sizes.  The returned location may be different from ptr.

       Tcl_AttemptAlloc and  Tcl_AttemptRealloc  are  identical  in  function  to  Tcl_Alloc  and
       Tcl_Realloc,  except  that  Tcl_AttemptAlloc and Tcl_AttemptRealloc will not cause the Tcl
       interpreter to panic if the memory allocation fails.  If the allocation fails, these func-
       tions  will  return  NULL.  Note that on some platforms, attempting to allocate a block of
       memory will also cause these functions to return NULL.

       The procedures ckalloc, ckfree, ckrealloc, attemptckalloc, and attemptckrealloc are imple-
       mented as macros.  Normally, they are synonyms for the corresponding procedures documented
       on this page.  When Tcl and all	modules  calling  Tcl  are  compiled  with  TCL_MEM_DEBUG
       defined,  however, these macros are redefined to be special debugging versions of of these
       procedures.  To support Tcl's memory debugging within a module, use the macros rather than
       direct calls to Tcl_Alloc, etc.

KEYWORDS
       alloc, allocation, free, malloc, memory, realloc, TCL_MEM_DEBUG

Tcl					       7.5				     Tcl_Alloc(3)