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erl_malloc Memory Allocation Functions

This module provides functions for allocating and deallocating memory.

 ETERM *erl_alloc_eterm(etype) Allocates an ETERM structure unsigned char etype;

This function allocates an structure. Specify as one of the following constants:

ERL_INTEGER

ERL_U_INTEGER

ERL_ATOM

ERL_PID

ERL_PORT

ERL_REF

ERL_LIST

ERL_EMPTY_LIST

ERL_TUPLE

ERL_BINARY

ERL_FLOAT

ERL_VARIABLE

ERL_SMALL_BIG

ERL_U_SMALL_BIG

and are for creating Erlang , which can contain integers of arbitrary size. The size of an integer in Erlang is machine dependent, but in general any integer larger than 2^28 requires a bignum.

 voiderl_eterm_release(void) Clears the ETERM freelist

Clears the freelist, where blocks are placed when they are released by and .

voiderl_eterm_statistics(allocated, freed) Reports term allocation statistics long *allocated; long *freed;

and are initialized to contain information about the fix-allocator used to allocate ETERM components. is the number of blocks currently allocated to ETERM objects. is the length of the freelist, where blocks are placed when they are released by and .

voiderl_free_array(array, size) Frees an array of ETERM structures ETERM **array; int size;

This function frees an array of Erlang terms.

is an array of ETERM* objects.

is the number of terms in the array.

 voiderl_free_term(t) Frees an ETERM structure ETERM *t;

Use this function to free an Erlang term.

 voiderl_free_compound(t) Frees an array of ETERM structures ETERM *t;

Normally it is the programmer's responsibility to free each Erlang term that has been returned from any of the functions. However since many of the functions that build new Erlang terms in fact share objects with other existing terms, it may be difficult for the programmer to maintain pointers to all such terms in order to free them individually.

will recursively free all of the sub-terms associated with a given Erlang term, regardless of whether we are still holding pointers to the sub-terms.

There is an example in the User Manual under "Building Terms and Patterns"

voiderl_malloc(size) Allocates some memory long size;

This function calls the standard function.

voiderl_free(ptr) Frees some memory void *ptr;

This function calls the standard function.