aligned_alloc

 

C

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Dynamic memory management

malloc

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aligned_alloc (C11)

 

Defined in header <stdlib.h>
void *aligned_alloc( size_t alignment, size_t size );		(since C11)

Allocate size bytes of uninitialized storage whose alignment is specified by alignment. The size parameter must be an integral multiple of alignment.

aligned_alloc is thread-safe: it behaves as though only accessing the memory locations visible through its argument, and not any static storage.

A previous call to free or realloc that deallocates a region of memory synchronizes-with a call to aligned_alloc that allocates the same or a part of the same region of memory. This synchronization occurs after any access to the memory by the deallocating function and before any access to the memory by aligned_alloc

Parameters

alignment	-	specifies the alignment. Must be a valid alignment supported by the implementation.
size	-	number of bytes to allocate. An integral multiple of alignment

Return value

Either a null pointer or a pointer to the allocated memory. The pointer must be deallocated with free().

Notes

Passing a size which is not an integral multiple of alignment or a alignment which is not valid or not supported by the implementation is undefined behavior.

E.g., the glibc requires alignment to be a power of two and a multiple of sizeof(void *).

References

• C11 standard (ISO/IEC 9899:2011):

• 7.22.3.1 Memory management functions

See also

C++ documentation for aligned storage