MALLOC(P)                                                                               MALLOC(P)



NAME
       malloc - a memory allocator

SYNOPSIS
       #include <stdlib.h>

       void *malloc(size_t size);


DESCRIPTION
       The  malloc()  function  shall  allocate unused space for an object whose size in bytes is
       specified by size and whose value is unspecified.

       The order and contiguity of storage allocated by successive calls to malloc() is  unspeci-
       fied. The pointer returned if the allocation succeeds shall be suitably aligned so that it
       may be assigned to a pointer to any type of object and then used to access such an  object
       in  the  space  allocated  (until the space is explicitly freed or reallocated). Each such
       allocation shall yield a pointer to an object disjoint from any other object. The  pointer
       returned  points  to  the start (lowest byte address) of the allocated space. If the space
       cannot be allocated, a null pointer shall be returned. If the size of the space  requested
       is  0,  the  behavior is implementation-defined: the value returned shall be either a null
       pointer or a unique pointer.

RETURN VALUE
       Upon successful completion with size not equal to 0, malloc() shall return  a  pointer  to
       the  allocated  space. If size is 0, either a null pointer or a unique pointer that can be
       successfully passed to free() shall be returned. Otherwise, it shall return a null pointer
        and set errno to indicate the error.

ERRORS
       The malloc() function shall fail if:

       ENOMEM Insufficient storage space is available.


       The following sections are informative.

EXAMPLES
       None.

APPLICATION USAGE
       None.

RATIONALE
       None.

FUTURE DIRECTIONS
       None.

SEE ALSO
       calloc()  ,  free()  ,  realloc()  ,  the Base Definitions volume of IEEE Std 1003.1-2001,
       <stdlib.h>

COPYRIGHT
       Portions of this text are reprinted and  reproduced  in  electronic  form  from  IEEE  Std
       1003.1,  2003  Edition,  Standard  for Information Technology -- Portable Operating System
       Interface (POSIX), The Open Group Base Specifications Issue 6, Copyright (C) 2001-2003  by
       the  Institute  of  Electrical  and  Electronics Engineers, Inc and The Open Group. In the
       event of any discrepancy between this version and the original IEEE  and  The  Open  Group
       Standard, the original IEEE and The Open Group Standard is the referee document. The orig-
       inal Standard can be obtained online at http://www.opengroup.org/unix/online.html .



POSIX                                          2003                                     MALLOC(P)