Memory leaks in doubly linked list - c

Question

I'm pretty new to C programming.
I have an assignment in which we are supposed to create a doubly linked list of integers, and write some functions to manipulate them. We are being asked to prevent memory leaks, but I'm not really sure how to do that.
I have to malloc a bunch of times in order to create and store nodes when making the linked list, and I'm pretty sure it's not a good idea to malloc enough space for a node and then free the pointer to it in the same place.
Therefore, my best guess is that I should free all nodes in the main function, when I will have printed their contents to the screen and they are no longer needed. I tried to implement a kill function that takes as input a reference head to the first node in the list, and which iterates over the nodes, freeing them as they go.
I went as far as installing valgrind to try and see if there were any memory leaks, and it looks like there are still some. I have no idea where they are coming from or how to fix the issue.
Here is the whole code:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
typedef struct Node{
int data;
struct Node *next;
struct Node *previous;
}Node;
void print_dll(Node *head){
Node *curr = head;
while(curr != NULL){
printf("%d\t", curr->data);
curr = curr->next;
}
puts(" ");
}
Node* create_dll_from_array(int array [], int arrSize){
//this is a function that creates a doubly linked list
//with the contents of the array
Node* current = (Node *) malloc (sizeof(Node * ));
current->data = array[arrSize-1];
current -> next = NULL;
for(int i = 2; i <= arrSize; i++){
//create a new node
Node * temp = (Node*)malloc(sizeof(Node*));
//I would like the dll to be in the same order as the array, I guess it isn't strictly necessary
temp ->data = array[arrSize-i];
temp -> next = current;
current-> previous = temp;
//now make temp the current
current = temp;
}
current-> previous = NULL;
return current;
}
void insert_after(Node* head, int valueToInsertAfter, int valueToInsert ){
if(head != NULL){
Node * current = head;
while(current-> data != valueToInsertAfter){
//this while loop brings 'current' to the end of the list if
//the searched value is not there
if(current-> next != NULL){
current = current->next;
}else{
break;
}
}
//after exiting this loop, the current pointer is pointing
//either to the last element of the dll or to the element
//we need to insert after
Node *new = (Node *) malloc (sizeof(Node *));
new->data = valueToInsert;
new->next = current->next;
new->previous = current;
if(current->next != NULL){
(current->next)->previous = new;
}
current->next = new;
}
}
void delete_element(Node* head, int valueToBeDeleted){
//work in progress
}
void kill(Node *head){
//this is my attempt at freeing all the nodes in the doubly linked list
Node *current;
while(head!=NULL){
current = head;
head = head->next;
free(head);
}
}
int main(){
int array [5] = {11, 2, 7, 22, 4};
Node *head;
/*Question 1*/
//creates a doubly linked list from the array below
head = create_dll_from_array(array, 5); ///size of the array is 5
/* Question 2 */
// print_dll(head);
/*Question 3*/
// to insert 13 after the first appearance of 7
insert_after(head, 7, 13);
print_dll(head);
//to insert 29 after first appearance of 21
insert_after(head, 21, 29);
print_dll(head);
/*Question 6*/
//create a function to free the whole list
kill(head);
return 0;
}
The main function here is given to us by the prof, we have to build out function around it.
I don't know why this is still appearing to lead to memory leaks, and if I', being honest, I don't really know where else they could occur. As far as I know, I need to keep all the memory until almost the last minute.
Please help, I'm pretty lost here.
Thank you!

Answer 1

There are two problems:
Need to change all malloc (sizeof(Node*)) to malloc (sizeof(Node))
Need to change free(header) to free(current) in the kill function.
The modified code is as follows
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
typedef struct Node {
int data;
struct Node *next;
struct Node *previous;
} Node;
void print_dll(Node *head)
{
Node *curr = head;
while(curr != NULL) {
printf("%d\t", curr->data);
curr = curr->next;
}
puts(" ");
}
Node *create_dll_from_array(int array [], int arrSize)
{
//this is a function that creates a doubly linked list
//with the contents of the array
Node *current = (Node *) malloc (sizeof(Node));
current->data = array[arrSize - 1];
current -> next = NULL;
for(int i = 2; i <= arrSize; i++) {
//create a new node
Node *temp = (Node *)malloc(sizeof(Node));
//I would like the dll to be in the same order as the array, I guess it isn't strictly necessary
temp ->data = array[arrSize - i];
temp -> next = current;
current-> previous = temp;
//now make temp the current
current = temp;
}
current-> previous = NULL;
return current;
}
void insert_after(Node *head, int valueToInsertAfter, int valueToInsert )
{
if(head != NULL) {
Node *current = head;
while(current-> data != valueToInsertAfter) {
//this while loop brings 'current' to the end of the list if
//the searched value is not there
if(current-> next != NULL) {
current = current->next;
} else {
break;
}
}
//after exiting this loop, the current pointer is pointing
//either to the last element of the dll or to the element
//we need to insert after
Node *new = (Node *) malloc (sizeof(Node));
new->data = valueToInsert;
new->next = current->next;
new->previous = current;
if(current->next != NULL) {
(current->next)->previous = new;
}
current->next = new;
}
}
void delete_element(Node *head, int valueToBeDeleted)
{
//work in progress
}
void kill(Node *head)
{
//this is my attempt at freeing all the nodes in the doubly linked list
Node *current;
while(head != NULL) {
current = head;
head = head->next;
free(current);
}
}
int main()
{
int array [5] = {11, 2, 7, 22, 4};
Node *head;
/*Question 1*/
//creates a doubly linked list from the array below
head = create_dll_from_array(array, 5); ///size of the array is 5
/* Question 2 */
// print_dll(head);
/*Question 3*/
// to insert 13 after the first appearance of 7
insert_after(head, 7, 13);
print_dll(head);
//to insert 29 after first appearance of 21
insert_after(head, 21, 29);
print_dll(head);
/*Question 6*/
//create a function to free the whole list
kill(head);
return 0;
}

Answer 2

Change sizeof(Node * ) to sizeof(Node) due to malloc reserving you memory for which the pointer points to and it needs the correct amount of needed memory (which is not a pointer but the object itself).
i <= arrSize might be an overflow, since the size usually is given as amount of memory cells. So you might consider using i < arrSize
The first while loop in the insert_after might point to invalid memory after the array
Node *new = is ugly syntax, since new is a keyword in C++. Please never do that, since that will break any code, which is being used in C++.
You dont need a temporary element in kill(). You can instead going until head points to NULL.
delete_element needs the same array checks as insert_after
Probably you need to debug the whole thing pasting one function after the other to get it properly working. No guarantee for correctness, since that was abit hard to read without comments and all.

Answer 3

The best way to find memory leaks is using valgrind (or a similar tool) in run time.
Valgrind will identify any memory leak or violation you ran through.
to run valgrind in linux environment, all you need to do is:
# valgrind --leak-check=full ./my_program
In you case it gave mainy theses errors:
==28583== Invalid read of size 8
==28583== at 0x400871: kill (aaa.c:77)
==28583== by 0x40092D: main (aaa.c:103)
==28583== Address 0x5204188 is 0 bytes after a block of size 8 alloc'd
==28583== at 0x4C2DB8F: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-linux.so)
==28583== by 0x40073A: create_dll_from_array (aaa.c:29)
==28583== by 0x4008D9: main (aaa.c:87)
this error means the allocation size was too small. as mentioned in another answers it is because you allocate enough memory for a pointer and not for the struct.