Thread: Freeing memory

Originally Posted by Elysia

A pointer is a variable.
Therefore it is stored on the stack.
A pointer is a variable that stores an address.
An address to the memory block allocated (in the case of malloc).

Can't a pointer be also an expression? Like if I would use a pointer in the following in C

Code:

void doit(char *s){
/*some code*/
}

Then do something like

Code:

doit(&len);

Wouldn't this be an expression? However, if was C++, then wouldn't it be a variable?

Also, can't a pointer be also stored on the heap?

Originally Posted by Elysia

That would be unlikely wouldn't it?
A process must own the shared memory, the creator. So if it dies, then it must disappear.
Otherwise the OS would continue eating memory...

Well on z/OS mainframes they have CSA "common storage" memory, and if my company's program has a CSA memory leak, that memory is gone forever until you reboot the mainframe (or so they tell me). So I would assume shared memory in UNIX and Windows would work the same way?