malloc(3) Library Functions Manual malloc(3)
NAME
malloc, free, calloc, realloc, reallocarray - allocate and free dynamic memory
LIBRARY
Standard C library (libc, -lc)
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():
Since glibc 2.29:
_DEFAULT_SOURCE
glibc 2.28 and earlier:
_GNU_SOURCE
DESCRIPTION
malloc()
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 a unique pointer value that can later be successfully passed to free(). (See "Non‐
portable behavior" for portability issues.)
free()
The free() function frees the memory space pointed to by ptr, which must have been returned by a previous call to malloc()
or related functions. Otherwise, or if ptr has already been freed, undefined behavior occurs. If ptr is NULL, no operation
is performed.
calloc()
The calloc() function allocates memory for an array of nmemb elements of size bytes each and returns a pointer to the allo‐
cated memory. The memory is set to zero. If nmemb or size is 0, then calloc() returns a unique pointer value that can
later be successfully passed to free().
If the multiplication of nmemb and size would result in integer overflow, then calloc() returns an error. By contrast, an
integer overflow would not be detected in the following call to malloc(), with the result that an incorrectly sized block of
memory would be allocated:
malloc(nmemb * size);
realloc()
The realloc() function changes the size of the memory block pointed to by ptr to size bytes. The contents of the memory
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) (but see "Nonportable behavior" for
portability issues).
Unless ptr is NULL, it must have been returned by an earlier call to malloc or related functions. If the area pointed to
was moved, a free(ptr) is done.
reallocarray()
The reallocarray() function changes the size of (and possibly moves) 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 an error.
RETURN VALUE
The malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), and reallocarray() functions return a pointer to the allocated memory, which is suitably
aligned for any type that fits into the requested size or less. On error, these functions return NULL and set errno. At‐
tempting to allocate more than PTRDIFF_MAX bytes is considered an error, as an object that large could cause later pointer
subtraction to overflow.
The free() function returns no value, and preserves errno.
The realloc() and reallocarray() functions return NULL if ptr is not NULL and the requested size is zero; this is not con‐
sidered an error. (See "Nonportable behavior" for portability issues.) Otherwise, the returned pointer may be the same as
ptr if the allocation was not moved (e.g., there was room to expand the allocation in-place), or different from ptr if the
allocation was moved to a new address. If these functions fail, the original block is left untouched; it is not freed or
moved.
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).
VERSIONS
reallocarray() was added in glibc 2.26.
malloc() and related functions rejected sizes greater than PTRDIFF_MAX starting in glibc 2.30.
free() preserved errno starting in glibc 2.33.
ATTRIBUTES
For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see attributes(7).
┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┬───────────────┬─────────┐
│Interface │ Attribute │ Value │
├─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┼───────────────┼─────────┤
│malloc(), free(), calloc(), realloc() │ Thread safety │ MT-Safe │
└─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┴───────────────┴─────────┘
STANDARDS
malloc(), free(), calloc(), realloc(): POSIX.1-2001, POSIX.1-2008, 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 pro‐
cesses 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 allo‐
cating blocks of memory larger than MMAP_THRESHOLD bytes, the glibc malloc() implementation allocates the memory as a pri‐
vate 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 struc‐
tures 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 cre‐
ates 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.
If your program uses a private memory allocator, it should do so by replacing malloc(), free(), calloc(), and realloc().
The replacement functions must implement the documented glibc behaviors, including errno handling, size-zero allocations,
and overflow checking; otherwise, other library routines may crash or operate incorrectly. For example, if the replacement
free() does not preserve errno, then seemingly unrelated library routines may fail without having a valid reason in errno.
Private memory allocators may also need to replace other glibc functions; see "Replacing malloc" in the glibc manual for de‐
tails.
Crashes in memory allocators 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.
Nonportable behavior
The behavior of these functions when the requested size is zero is glibc specific; other implementations may return NULL
without setting errno, and portable POSIX programs should tolerate such behavior. See realloc(3p).
POSIX requires memory allocators to set errno upon failure. However, the C standard does not require this, and applications
portable to non-POSIX platforms should not assume this.
Portable programs should not use private memory allocators, as POSIX and the C standard do not allow replacement of mal‐
loc(), free(), calloc(), and realloc().
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⟩.
Linux man-pages 6.03 2023-02-05 malloc(3)