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GALLOC(3) Library Functions Manual GALLOC(3) NAME galloc, gfree, garbage - storage allocation with garbage collection SYNOPSIS char *galloc(n) unsigned n; void gfree(p) char *p; void garbage() DESCRIPTION These functions perform heap storage allocation with garbage collec- tion. Galloc allocates a block of at least n bytes and returns a pointer to it. Gfree frees a block previously allocated by galloc. When space gets tight, garbage blocks are freed automatically. A block allocated by galloc is deemed to be garbage unless it is reachable. A reachable block is one whose first byte is pointed to by a declared C variable or by a pointer in a reachable block. The frequency of garbage collection is controlled by external variables declared long gcmax = 5000, gcmin = 50; No more than gcmax allocations may intervene between automatic collec- tions; this feature will help contain the growth of virtual address space. At least gcmin allocations must intervene, otherwise garbage collection will be abandoned as fruitless. Garbage may be called to do garbage collection at an arbitrary time. Malloc(3) and galloc allocate from the same arena, but garbage collec- tion affects only galloc blocks. Free (see malloc(3)) must not be used on blocks allocated with galloc. SEE ALSO malloc(3) DIAGNOSTICS Galloc returns 0 when space cannot be found. BUGS Garbage collection is conservative; blocks that appear to be pointed to from within declared storage will not be freed, regardless of whether the apparent `pointers' were declared as such. GALLOC(3)