ALLOCA

ALLOCA

NAME SYNOPSIS DESCRIPTION RETURN VALUE CONFORMING TO BUGS SEE ALSO

NAME

alloca - memory allocator

SYNOPSIS

#include

void *alloca( size_t size);

DESCRIPTION

The alloca function allocates size bytes of space in the stack frame of the caller. This temporary space is automatically freed on return.

RETURN VALUE

The alloca function returns a pointer to the beginning of the allocated space. If the allocation failed, a NULL pointer is returned.

CONFORMING TO

There is evidence that the alloca function appeared in 32v, pwb, pwb.2, 3bsd, and 4bsd. There is a man page for it in BSD 4.3. Linux uses the GNU version.

BUGS

The alloca function is machine dependent.

SEE ALSO

brk(2), pagesize(2)?, calloc(3), malloc(3), realloc(3)