free() (C gurus ignore plz)

From: Mark McArthey (mcarthey@mfa.com)
Date: 05/09/96


Just to clear this up and return to what is being affectionatally 
termed CS 1, I'm posting a piece from a book named C: A reference
manual, Fourth Edition.  The important part of this is probably
the last paragraph.

free

ISO C facilities 	Traditional and alternate facilities

void free(void *ptr);	void free(char *ptr);
			void cfree(char *ptr);

The ISO function free deallocates a region of memory previously
allocated by malloc, calloc, or realloc.  The traditional version 
of free deallocates memory previously allocated by malloc, mlalloc,
realloc, or relalloc.  The traditional C function cfree deallocates
memory previously allocated by calloc or clalloc.

The argument to free or cfree must be a pointer that is the same as 
a pointer previously returned by one fo the allocation functions.  If
the argument to the ISO C free function is a null pointer, then the 
call has no effect.  However, passing a null pointer to a traditional
free or cfree function is known to cause trouble in many non-ISO C
implementations.

Once a region of memory has been explicitly freed (or reallocated), it
must not be used for any other purpose.  The use of any pointer into 
the region (a "dangling pointer") will have unpredictable effects.  
Likewise, allocating a region of storage once but freeing it more
than once has unpredictable effects.


I hope that helps.  If not, best get a (better) book.

Mark

(I am always amazed at the knowledge that one can find in a book).



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