malloc always setting length of 8?

Why would it do that?
Here's basically what it is...

Code:

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char* file_source;
  file_source = (char*) malloc (strlen("Whatever I want"));

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No matter what I do, setting a static int in malloc, strlen, whatever, it gives me 8. I have about 3 or 4 malloc calls above this one that work fine. Why is this one giving me problems? No matter what I name it, its an issue o_0;


Hmm.. Just played a bit with this... I commented out the above fclose, and malloc set fine. Why would fclose effect a malloc?

How do you know you are only getting 8 bytes?
And since this is in the C++ board you really should be using new

> Why would fclose effect a malloc?
You've basically trashed the malloc memory pool with some previous mis-use of memory. Once you've done that, what happens next is totally random (that's undefined to you).

Consider the following abuses
- use of a pointer before malloc is called
- use of a pointer after free has been called
- freeing the same memory more than once
- stepping off the end of malloc'ed memory
- getting the size wrong for allocated memory

Your example code fails on this last point. If you want to allocate enough space for a string, then you need strlen(string)+1 bytes to store it in - strlen() does not count the \0 at the end.

Thanks salem. Though every other malloc I use I don't add the +1 to the end, and I have no issues. This one also works fine when I remove the fclose() above it.

Thantos: I get "8" returned when I do a strlen() on the variable :/

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Zarkhalar

I get "8" returned when I do a strlen() on the variable :/

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are you actually copying the string into the allocated memory? you know calling malloc(strlen("some string")+1); only allocates that memory, it doesnt copy the string value into it.

Yep, I know. But when I do a strlen() on any other malloc'd variable it shows 0, while this one shows 8 o_0;

that could be caused by any number of reasons. The most obvious to me is that the particular area in memory has some left over values in it. Remember malloc doesn't zero out the memory.

> Thanks salem. Though every other malloc I use I don't add the +1 to the end, and I have no issues.
That's just storing up trouble for the future.
Your program is already broken, you just don't know it yet.

> Yep, I know. But when I do a strlen() on any other malloc'd variable it shows 0, while this one shows 8
All malloc memory should be treated as uninitialised.