linked list problem

i have this loop which is suppose to delete all nodes from the list and then free the memory that they occupy. could somebody check what is wrong with it. im kinda lost here. thanks in advance

Code:

for (p=first; p!=NULL; p=p->next)
   free(p);

You are freeing p and then the for loop has to do a p=p->next operation. How can you say p=p->next when p is gone? A possible solution is to use a temp pointer:

Code:

for (p=first; p!=NULL; )
{
    node* temp = p->next;  // Use whatever pointer type needed in place of 'node'
    free(p);
    p = temp;
}