*szString = things question/memory question

Hi,
I wasn't sure what to google for this one, but I did try (at least a little).

I'm wondering what happens, with respect to memory, when you do this

Code:

---

void myFunction(char* szInput)
{
char* szTemp = "Hello";
szInput = szTemp;
return;
}

---

The local copy of szInput is replaced by szTemp. No malloc was done, so no free'ing needs to be done on szTemp.
What about szInput? Will the implementation "know" to free the original location of the copy of szInput, or is that a memory leak?

thanks

szInput is itself just a copy of something else, so overwriting it has no consequence to the caller.

Code:

---

p = malloc(10);
myFunction( p );
// p is unchanged here, you still need to free it.

---

Thanks.
Short followup question - something I don't really understand about char* in general.
if I did say

Code:

---

void myFunction(int* pnInput)
{
*pnInput = 500;
return
}

---

Then the caller would actually notice the change in pnInput.
But in

Code:

---

void myFunction(char* szInput)
{
*szInput = 50;
return
}

---

I think it crashes (can't try at the mo).
(I'm aware that the proper way to do it is to have the function header use a char** pszInput, but I just want to understand what's going on anyway)
Are char*s privileged in some way?
These are pretty basic questions, so if you don't want to answer, I'd be absolutely glad to just be linked to an article or something, so I can read up myself and play around.

Thanks

Well as soon as you start doing *param = value, you need to make sure your input pointer is pointing at valid memory.

Otherwise various random things, like crashing, will start to happen.