how to allocate a known block of the memory to a char *

[*DEAD*]

Hi, i have a char * which points to a buffer which i get from the recv function. I want to treat this buffer like a stack for parsing, and after each argument is parsed it is popped from the stack. For example

char parseByte(char * buffer)
{
    char ret = *buffer;
    free(buffer) //dont want to have the char allocated any more;
    buffer = buffer + 1;
    //now how do i allocate the rest of *buffer back to buffer so the OS doesnt write over them
    return ret;
}

[MacGyver]

You can't choose when and how you'll free memory that way. Whatever block of memory you malloc(), you need to free() in its entirety.

[vart]

You cannot free part of the buffer

parse buffer till the end
free it when the work with the whole buffer is finished

[zacs7]

Who said buffer was dynamically allocated anyway?

say parseByte was called as,

char blah[] = "this is a test";
parseByte(blah);

if you free() that you could find your self in strife.

[vart]

Who said buffer was dynamically allocated anyway?

say parseByte was called as,

char blah[] = "this is a test";
parseByte(blah);

if you free() that you could find your self in strife.

in this case prototype of the parseByte should be
parseByte(const char* buf);