🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Aug5.032444.4006@visus.com> jml@visus.com (Jim Large) writes:
> In article <15mfliINNj9a@darkstar.UCSC.EDU> isbell@cats.ucsc.edu (Art Isbell)  
> writes:
> > const char *aStringPtr = "string";
> > const char aString[] = "string";
> 
> 
> > I've assumed that the memory referenced by aStringPtr is in some read-only
> > heap area.  When aStringPtr is no longer needed, can this memory be freed
> > with free(aStringPtr)?
> 
> NO!  The constant string is not allocated from a heap.  You can't free it,
> and you can't ever change its contents.  (It really is a CONSTANT.)

While you are correct in just about every case, this will make nethack (along  
with other historical programs) a pain to compile and run because nethack needs  
to modify string constants.  But there is a compiler flag, -fwritable-strings,  
which will allow you to modify the string constants.

Straight from the cc man pages

     -fwritable-strings
          Store string constants in the writable data segment and
          don't make them unique.  This is for compatibility with
          old programs that assume they can write into string
          constants.  Writing into string constants is a very bad
          idea; "constants" should be constant.

--
Michael Rutman			|	moose@svcdudes.com
Cubist				|	makes me a NeXT programmer
Software Ventures		|	maker of MicroPhone II
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