NAME

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


SYNOPSIS

     #include <stdlib.h>

     void *calloc(size_t nmemb, size_t size));
     void *malloc(size_t size));
     void free(void *ptr));
     void *realloc(void *ptr, size_t size));


DESCRIPTION

     calloc() 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.

     malloc() allocates size bytes and returns a pointer  to  the
     allocated memory. The memory is not cleared.

     free() 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 behaviour occurs.  If ptr is NULL,
     no operation is performed.

     realloc() changes the size of the memory block pointed to by
     ptr  to  size  bytes.  The contents will be unchanged to the
     minimum of the old and new  sizes;  newly  allocated  memory
     will  be  uninitialized.   If  ptr  is  NULL,  the  call  is
     equivalent to malloc(size); if size is equal  to  zero,  the
     call  is  equivalent  to  free(ptr)).  Unless ptr is NULL, it
     must have been returned by an earlier call to malloc(), cal-
     loc() or realloc().


RETURN VALUES

     For calloc() and malloc(), the value returned is  a  pointer
     to  the  allocated memory, which is suitably aligned for any
     kind of variable, or NULL if the request fails.

     free() returns no value.

     realloc() returns a pointer to the newly  allocated  memory,
     which  is  suitably aligned for any kind of variable and may
     be different from ptr, or NULL if the request  fails  or  if
     size  was equal to 0.  If realloc() fails the original block
     is left untouched - it is not freed or moved.


CONFORMING TO

     ANSI-C



SEE ALSO

     brk(2)


NOTES

     The Unix98 standard requires malloc(), calloc(),  and  real-
     loc()  to  set  errno  to ENOMEM upon failure. Glibc assumes
     that this is done (and the glibc versions 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(), free() or realloc() are  almost  always
     related to heap corruption, such as overflowing an allocated
     chunk or freeing the same pointer twice.

     Recent versions of Linux libc (later than  5.4.23)  and  GNU
     libc  (2.x) include a malloc implementation which is tunable
     via environment variables.  When  MALLOC_CHECK_  is  set,  a
     special  (less  efficient)  implementation  is used which is
     designed to be tolerant against simple errors, such as  dou-
     ble calls of free() with the same argument, or overruns of a
     single byte (off-by-one bugs).  Not all such errors  can  be
     proteced  against, however, and memory leaks can result.  If
     MALLOC_CHECK_ is set to 0, any detected heap  corruption  is
     silently  ignored;  if  set to 1, a diagnostic is printed on
     stderr; if set to 2, abort() is  called  immediately.   This
     can  be  useful  because  otherwise  a crash may happen much
     later, and the true cause for the problem is then very  hard
     to track down.