malloc
When you no longer need a block that you got with malloc
, use the
function free
to make the block available to be allocated again.
The prototype for this function is in `stdlib.h'.
free
function deallocates the block of memory pointed at
by ptr.
free
. It's provided for
backward compatibility with SunOS; you should use free
instead.
Freeing a block alters the contents of the block. Do not expect to find any data (such as a pointer to the next block in a chain of blocks) in the block after freeing it. Copy whatever you need out of the block before freeing it! Here is an example of the proper way to free all the blocks in a chain, and the strings that they point to:
struct chain { struct chain *next; char *name; } void free_chain (struct chain *chain) { while (chain != 0) { struct chain *next = chain->next; free (chain->name); free (chain); chain = next; } }
Occasionally, free
can actually return memory to the operating
system and make the process smaller. Usually, all it can do is allow a
later call to malloc
to reuse the space. In the meantime, the
space remains in your program as part of a free-list used internally by
malloc
.
There is no point in freeing blocks at the end of a program, because all of the program's space is given back to the system when the process terminates.
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