.\" Copyright (c) 2003 Andries Brouwer (aeb@cwi.nl)

.\"

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.\" modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as

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.\"

.TH CFREE 3 2017-09-15  "" "Linux Programmer's Manual"

.SH NAME

cfree \- free allocated memory

.SH SYNOPSIS

.nf

.PP

.B "#include <stdlib.h>"

.PP

/* In SunOS 4 */

.BI "int cfree(void *" ptr );

.PP

/* In glibc or FreeBSD libcompat */

.BI "void cfree(void *" ptr );

.PP

/* In SCO OpenServer */

.BI "void cfree(char *" ptr ", unsigned " num ", unsigned " size );

.PP

/* In Solaris watchmalloc.so.1 */

.BI "void cfree(void *" ptr ", size_t " nelem ", size_t " elsize );

.fi

.PP

.in -4n

Feature Test Macro Requirements for glibc (see

.BR feature_test_macros (7)):

.in

.PP

.BR cfree ():

    Since glibc 2.19:

        _DEFAULT_SOURCE

    Glibc 2.19 and earlier:

        _BSD_SOURCE || _SVID_SOURCE

.SH DESCRIPTION

This function should never be used.

Use

.BR free (3)

instead.

Starting with version 2.26, it has been removed from glibc.

.SS 1-arg cfree

In glibc, the function

.BR cfree ()

is a synonym for

.BR free (3),

"added for compatibility with SunOS".

.PP

Other systems have other functions with this name.

The declaration is sometimes in

.I <stdlib.h>

and sometimes in

.IR <malloc.h> .

.SS 3-arg cfree

Some SCO and Solaris versions have malloc libraries with a 3-argument

.BR cfree (),

apparently as an analog to

.BR calloc (3).

.PP

If you need it while porting something, add

.PP

.in +4n

.EX

#define cfree(p, n, s) free((p))

.EE

.in

.PP

to your file.

.PP

A frequently asked question is "Can I use

.BR free (3)

to free memory allocated with

.BR calloc (3),

or do I need

.BR cfree ()?"

Answer: use

.BR free (3).

.PP

An SCO manual writes: "The cfree routine is provided for compliance

to the iBCSe2 standard and simply calls free.

The num and size

arguments to cfree are not used."

.SH RETURN VALUE

The SunOS version of

.BR cfree ()

(which is a synonym for

.BR free (3))

returns 1 on success and 0 on failure.

In case of error,

.I errno

is set to

.BR EINVAL :

the value of

.I ptr

was not a pointer to a block previously allocated by

one of the routines in the

.BR malloc (3)

family.

.SH VERSIONS

The

.BR cfree ()

function was removed

.\" commit 025b33ae84bb8f15b2748a1d8605dca453fce112

from glibc in version 2.26.

.SH ATTRIBUTES

For an explanation of the terms used in this section, see

.BR attributes (7).

.TS

allbox;

lb lb lb

l l l.

Interface	Attribute	Value

T{

.BR cfree ()

T}	Thread safety	MT-Safe /* In glibc */

.TE

.SH CONFORMING TO

The 3-argument version of

.BR cfree ()

as used by SCO conforms to the iBCSe2 standard:

Intel386 Binary Compatibility Specification, Edition 2.

.SH SEE ALSO

.BR malloc (3)

.SH COLOPHON

This page is part of release 4.15 of the Linux

.I man-pages

project.

A description of the project,

information about reporting bugs,

and the latest version of this page,

can be found at

\%https://www.kernel.org/doc/man\-pages/.