realloc()

Updated: October 28, 2024

Allocate, reallocate, or free a block of memory

Synopsis:

#include <stdlib.h>

void* realloc( void* old_blk, 
               size_t size );

Arguments:

old_blk
A pointer to the block of memory to be allocated, reallocated, or freed.
size
The new size, in bytes, for the block of memory.

Library:

libc

Use the -l c option to qcc to link against this library. This library is usually included automatically.

Description:

The realloc() function allocates, reallocates, or frees the block of memory specified by old_blk based on the following rules. You can control parts of this behavior via the MALLOC_OPTIONS environmental variable.

The realloc() function allocates memory from the heap. Use free() or realloc() to free the block of memory.

Note: Because it's possible that a new block will be allocated, any pointers into the old memory could be invalidated. These pointers will point to freed memory, with possible disastrous results, when a new block is allocated.

The realloc() function returns NULL when the memory pointed to by old_blk can't be reallocated. In this case, the memory pointed to by old_blk isn't freed, so be careful to maintain a pointer to the old memory block so you can free it later.

In the following example, buffer is set to NULL if the function fails, and won't point to the old memory block. If buffer is your only pointer to the memory block, then you have lost access to this memory.

buffer = (char* )realloc( buffer, 100 );

Returns:

A pointer to the start of the allocated memory, or NULL if an error occurred (errno is set).

Errors:

ENOMEM
Not enough memory.

Examples:

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <malloc.h>

int main( void )
{
    char* buffer;
    char* new_buffer;

    buffer = (char* )malloc( 80 );
    if ( buffer == NULL ) {
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    }

    new_buffer = (char* )realloc( buffer, 100 );
    if( new_buffer == NULL ) {

        /* Couldn't allocate a larger buffer.
           Remember that buffer stills point to
           allocated memory -- don't leak it! */

        free (buffer);
        return EXIT_FAILURE;
    } else {
      buffer = new_buffer;
    }

    return EXIT_SUCCESS;
}

Environment variables:

See the entry for mallopt().

Classification:

ANSI, POSIX 1003.1

Safety:  
Cancellation point No
Interrupt handler No
Signal handler No
Thread Yes