simple c malloc

c malloc realloc
Thomas picture Thomas · Sep 20, 2010 · Viewed 10.6k times · Source

While there are lots of different sophisticated implementations of malloc / free for C/C++, I'm looking for a really simple and (especially) small one that works on a fixed-size buffer and supports realloc. Thread-safety etc. are not needed and my objects are small and do not vary much in size. Is there any implementation that you could recommend?

EDIT:

I'll use that implementation for a communication buffer at the receiver to transport objects with variable size (unknown to the receiver). The allocated objects won't live long, but there are possibly several objects used at the same time.

As everyone seems to recommend the standard malloc, I should perhaps reformulate my question. What I need is the "simplest" implementation of malloc on top of a buffer that I can start to optimize for my own needs. Perhaps the original question was unclear because I'm not looking for an optimized malloc, only for a simple one. I don't want to start with a glibc-malloc and extend it, but with a light-weight one.

Answer

Thomas picture Thomas · Sep 20, 2010

Kerninghan & Ritchie seem to have provided a small malloc / free in their C book - that's exactly what I was looking for (reimplementation found here). I'll only add a simple realloc.

I'd still be glad about suggestions for other implementations that are as simple and concise as this one (for example, using doubly-linked lists).

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