Memory Management

Functions
void *	memAlloc (int nb)
	Allocate a block of memory from the heap. More...
void *	memAllocZero (int nb)
	Allocate and zero a block of memory from the heap. More...
void *	memRealloc (void *oldp, int nb)
	Resize a block of memory, or allocate a new one. More...
void	memFree (void *p)
	Release a previously allocated block. More...

Detailed Description

Rationale

Memory management is important, specially in an embedded environment. Besides not all platforms correctly supporting ANSI C, having our own memory-allocation functions allow for easier debugging of applications.

Introduction

This modules includes portable memory-management functions. All modules of larlib use this functions. They may allow improved debugging / tracing support than any given platform's built-in implementation.

Function Documentation

void* memAlloc

(

int

nb

)

Allocate a block of memory from the heap.

The memory allocated by this function should only be accessed by the calling application. The pointer is not guaranteed to be valid for other applications.

Parameters

nb	Number of bytes to allocate.

Returns

NULL if memory could not be allocated.

A pointer to the newly allocated, uninitialized, block.

void* memAllocZero

(

int

nb

)

Allocate and zero a block of memory from the heap.

This is equivalent to calling memAlloc() followed by memset().

Parameters

nb	Number of bytes to allocate.

Returns

NULL if memory could not be allocated.

A pointer to the newly allocated, zero-initialized, block.

void memFree

(

void *

p

)

Release a previously allocated block.

Parameters

p	A pointer returned by memAlloc()

void* memRealloc	(	void *	oldp,
		int	nb
	)

Resize a block of memory, or allocate a new one.

The data pointed by oldp is shallow-copied (using memcpy()) to the new pointer on success. This is equivalent to the ANSI C function realloc().

Parameters

oldp	Address of the memory block to resize.
nb	Number of bytes to resize oldp to.

Returns

NULL if oldp could not be resized and new memory could not be allocated.

A pointer to the newly allocated memory, its prefix is the same as oldp.