1.\" Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California. 2.\" All rights reserved. 3.\" 4.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by 5.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information 6.\" Processing Systems. 7.\" 8.\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without 9.\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions 10.\" are met: 11.\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright 12.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer. 13.\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright 14.\" notice, this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in the 15.\" documentation and/or other materials provided with the distribution. 16.\" 3. All advertising materials mentioning features or use of this software 17.\" must display the following acknowledgement: 18.\" This product includes software developed by the University of 19.\" California, Berkeley and its contributors. 20.\" 4. Neither the name of the University nor the names of its contributors 21.\" may be used to endorse or promote products derived from this software 22.\" without specific prior written permission. 23.\" 24.\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE REGENTS AND CONTRIBUTORS ``AS IS'' AND 25.\" ANY EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE 26.\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE 27.\" ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE REGENTS OR CONTRIBUTORS BE LIABLE 28.\" FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL 29.\" DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF SUBSTITUTE GOODS 30.\" OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) 31.\" HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT 32.\" LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY 33.\" OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF 34.\" SUCH DAMAGE. 35.\" 36.\" @(#)free.3 5.2 (Berkeley) 6/29/91 37.\" 38.Dd June 29, 1991 39.Dt FREE 3 40.Os 41.Sh NAME 42.Nm free 43.Nd free up memory allocated with malloc, calloc or realloc 44.Sh SYNOPSIS 45.Fd #include <stdlib.h> 46.Ft void 47.Fn free "void *ptr" 48.Sh DESCRIPTION 49The 50.Fn free 51function causes the space pointed to by 52.Fa ptr 53to be deallocated, that is, made available 54for further allocation. 55If 56.Fa ptr 57is a null pointer, no action occurs. 58Otherwise, if the argument does not match a pointer earlier 59returned by the 60.Xr calloc , 61.Xr malloc , 62or 63.Xr realloc 64function, or if the space has been deallocated by a call to 65.Fn free 66or 67.Xr realloc , 68general havoc may occur. 69.Sh RETURN VALUES 70The 71.Fn free 72function returns no value. 73.Sh SEE ALSO 74.Xr calloc 3 , 75.Xr malloc 3 , 76.Xr realloc 3 77.Sh STANDARDS 78The 79.Fn free 80function conforms to 81.St -ansiC . 82