.\" Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
.\"
.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information
.\" Processing Systems.
.\"
.\" %sccs.include.redist.man%
.\"
.\"     @(#)free.3	5.2 (Berkeley) 06/29/91
.\"
.Dd 
.Dt FREE 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm free
.Nd free up memory allocated with malloc, calloc or realloc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
.Ft void
.Fn free "void *ptr"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn free
function causes the space pointed to by
.Fa ptr
to be deallocated, that is, made available
for further allocation.
If
.Fa ptr
is a null pointer, no action occurs.
Otherwise, if the argument does not match a pointer earlier
returned by the
.Xr calloc ,
.Xr malloc ,
or
.Xr realloc
function, or if the space has been deallocated by a call to
.Fn free
or
.Xr realloc ,
general havoc may occur.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn free
function returns no value.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr calloc 3 ,
.Xr malloc 3 ,
.Xr realloc 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn free
function conforms to
.St -ansiC .