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Re: Why malloc() when target code is executed?


On Mon, Aug 25, 2003 at 11:25:31AM -0700, Kevin Buettner wrote:

On Aug 22, 10:48pm, Josef Wolf wrote:


> I just noticed that ``print printf("Hello\n")'' call malloc() on the
> target to allocate the memory for the string. AFAICS, this memory
> never gets freed. Is there any reason not to allocate this memory
> on the stack? This would avoid this memory leak. In addition, this
> would make it possible to use this feature on embedded systems which
> often have either restricted memory or even dont have malloc() at all.


For printf(), allocating the string on the stack is (usually) okay. This is because printf() doesn't return a pointer to the string nor
does it write the string pointer to some data structure in the
inferior process. Functions which did either of these could/would end
up with a dangling pointer if the string were to be allocated on the
stack.


Ahhh, I see there is good reason for current behavior. Had not thought
about this one. Thanks for clarifying this.

The doco should probably mention this. What to file a bug report (or a patch?).


Andrew



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