Should a C program release memory upon termination? [duplicate] - c

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Should I free memory before exit?
(5 answers)
What REALLY happens when you don't free after malloc before program termination?
(20 answers)
Closed 8 months ago.
In a C program, if I try to use malloc and for some reason the pointer is NULL, I will terminate the program with exit(1); as without that block of memory the program is essentially unusable. Upon using exit(1); should I be releasing all of the memory I had allocated during the program or does that happen automatically?

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Clearing memory allocated to a string in C? [duplicate]

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Is a string literal in ะก++ created in static memory?
(4 answers)
Where are static variables stored in C and C++?
(16 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
How does memory gets allocated for a string literal in C and do we need to free it?
E.g.:
char *k="hello world";
Where does this string get stored and how does it get de-allocated?
where does this string get stored
Usually in read-only memory, you cannot modify it. In gcc, on most systems, they are located in the .TEXT section.
how does it get de-allocated
upon program termination.

A zero byte allocation should be considered a leak? [duplicate]

This question already has answers here:
What's the point of malloc(0)?
(17 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I'm checking memory allocation with poolmon for a C application, after uninstall it still have 1 allocation with zero bytes. Can this be considered as a memory leak?
It's an implementation defined.
But even malloc(0) must be free()'d.

The use of free function in c [duplicate]

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Using pointer after free()
(6 answers)
Closed 6 years ago.
I allocated memory for pointer using malloc function. I had deallocate memory using free. But whenever I'm trying to print the content of pointer it prints the content.
Then what is the use of free()?
free() just marks the memory as available (as in, it can be used for further allocations). It does not removes the content of the memory.
That said, you should not access the content of a freed memory, as it is Undefined Behavior.

Should global static arrays be freed? [duplicate]

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Freeing global variable
(2 answers)
Closed 7 years ago.
Say I declare a global array int arr[10]; Should I free it somehow in the end?
You need not free it.You should use free() only when you have use malloc().
No. You can't free it and you don't need to. arr is in static storage which means that it is created on program startup and destroyed on program termination. Explicit freeing is neither possible nor required as the storage is automatically freed on program termination.

Why is malloc()'s pool called a "heap"? [duplicate]

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Why are two different concepts both called "heap"? [duplicate]
(9 answers)
What is a Memory Heap?
(8 answers)
Closed 9 years ago.
Can anyone explain why the pool of memory managed by malloc() / free() is called a heap?
Based on [1]: http://www.google.com/url?q=http://gee.cs.oswego.edu/dl/html/malloc.html&sa=D&sntz=1&usg=AFQjCNHaQLotbBKKwYqxiiYWN1146BWzFw "Doug Lea's explanation of how his malloc() works",
it's not obvious that the data structure which we call a "heap" is being used at all.
Do we call it a "heap" because it's common for malloc() implementations to use best-fit selection of the memory chunk to return, and that's historically been implemented using a min-heap of chunks, sorted by chunk size?

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