gnu, malloc, and "zero'd" memory

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Article #52349

#52349

From: Richard Stallman
Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 16:17

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To ask whether GCC expects malloc to zero memory implicitly suggests
consideration of modifying malloc to do what it "expects".  That is a
completely unreasonable idea.  Clearing memory is not part of the
definition of malloc.  Programs have to accept the definition of
malloc.

It is possible for a program to have a bug where it fails to work when
malloc returns nonzero memory.  It's possible that GCC has such a bug
somewhere.  If you find a bug like this in GCC, please send a
*specific* bug report showing the code which has the problem; then the
maintainers will fix it.

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Message-ID: <9211260217.AA26065@mole.gnu.ai.mit.edu>

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References: <1992Nov26.013410.5755@netcom.com>

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From: rms@gnu.ai.mit.edu (Richard Stallman)
Subject: gnu, malloc, and "zero'd" memory
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Date: Wed, 25 Nov 1992 16:17:38 GMT
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