xref: /dragonfly/lib/libc/stdlib/posix_memalign.3 (revision 0600465e)
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28.Dd April 7, 2019
29.Dt POSIX_MEMALIGN 3
30.Os
31.Sh NAME
32.Nm posix_memalign ,
33.Nm aligned_alloc
34.Nd aligned memory allocation
35.Sh LIBRARY
36.Lb libc
37.Sh SYNOPSIS
38.In stdlib.h
39.Ft int
40.Fn posix_memalign "void **ptr" "size_t alignment" "size_t size"
41.Ft void *
42.Fn aligned_alloc "size_t alignment" "size_t size"
43.Sh DESCRIPTION
44The
45.Fn posix_memalign
46function allocates
47.Fa size
48bytes of memory such that the allocation's base address is an even multiple of
49.Fa alignment ,
50and returns the allocation in the value pointed to by
51.Fa ptr .
52.Pp
53The requested
54.Fa alignment
55must be a power of 2 at least as large as
56.Fn sizeof "void *" .
57.Pp
58Memory that is allocated via
59.Fn posix_memalign
60can be used as an argument in subsequent calls to
61.Xr realloc 3 ,
62.Xr reallocf 3 ,
63and
64.Xr free 3 .
65.Pp
66The
67.Fn aligned_alloc
68is similar to
69.Fn posix_memalign ,
70but it does not have the
71.Fn sizeof "void *"
72restriction, takes just
73.Fa alignment
74and
75.Fa size
76and the allocation pointer is returned.
77.Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES
78The
79.Fn posix_memalign
80function is directly supported by matching the requested alignment against a zone
81of the slab allocator with a compatible chunking, and using the power-of-2
82shortcut whenever possible.
83Alignments beyond those supported by the zone mechanism are still
84guaranteed using cute
85.Xr mmap 2
86tricks.
87Our
88.Fn posix_memalign
89is thus able to take advantage of the slab allocator to produce
90well-fitted results when the requests are reasonable.
91.Sh RETURN VALUES
92The
93.Fn posix_memalign
94function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise it returns an error value.
95The
96.Fn aligned_alloc
97returns a pointer to the allocated memory if successful; otherwise a
98.Dv NULL
99pointer is returned and
100.Va errno
101is set.
102.Sh ERRORS
103The
104.Fn posix_memalign
105and
106.Fn aligned_alloc
107functions will fail if:
108.Bl -tag -width Er
109.It Bq Er EINVAL
110The
111.Fa alignment
112parameter is not a power of 2 at least as large as
113.Fn sizeof "void *" .
114.It Bq Er ENOMEM
115Memory allocation error.
116.El
117.Sh SEE ALSO
118.Xr free 3 ,
119.Xr malloc 3 ,
120.Xr realloc 3 ,
121.Xr reallocf 3 ,
122.Xr valloc 3
123.Sh STANDARDS
124The
125.Fn posix_memalign
126function conforms to
127.St -p1003.1-2008 .
128The
129.Fn aligned_alloc
130function conforms to
131.St -isoC-2011 .
132