calloc¶

 my $pointer = calloc $count, $size;

The "calloc" function contiguously allocates enough space for $count objects that are $size bytes of memory each.

free¶

 free $pointer;

The "free" function frees the memory allocated by "malloc", "calloc", "realloc" or "strdup". It is important to only free memory that you yourself have allocated. A good way to crash your program is to try and free a pointer that some C library has returned to you.

malloc¶

 my $pointer = malloc $size;

The "malloc" function allocates $size bytes of memory.

memcpy¶

 memcpy $dst_pointer, $src_pointer, $size;

The "memcpy" function copies $size bytes from $src_pointer to $dst_pointer. It also returns $dst_pointer .

memset¶

 memset $buffer, $value, $length;

The "memset" function writes $length bytes of $value to the address specified by $buffer.

realloc¶

 my $new_pointer = realloc $old_pointer, $size;

The "realloc" function reallocates enough memory to fit $size bytes. It copies the existing data and frees $old_pointer.

If you pass "undef" in as $old_pointer, then it behaves exactly like "malloc":

 my $pointer = realloc undef, 64; # same as malloc 64

strdup¶

 my $pointer = strdup $string;

The "strdup" function allocates enough memory to contain $string and then copies it to that newly allocated memory. This version of "strdup" returns an opaque pointer type, not a string type. This may seem a little strange, but returning a string type would not be very useful in Perl.

strndup¶

 my $pointer = strndup $string, $max;

The same as "strdup" above, except at most $max characters will be copied in the new string.