VERSION

version 0.43

SYNOPSIS

use FFI::Platypus::Memory;

# allocate 64 bytes of memory using the
# libc malloc function.
my $pointer = malloc 64;

# use that memory wisely
...
# free the memory when you are done.
free $pointer;

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an interface to common memory functions provided by the standard C library. They may be useful when constructing interfaces to C libraries with FFI.

FUNCTIONS

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.

Platforms that do not support "strdup" will be provided with an equivalent using "malloc" and "memcpy" written in Perl. This version is slower.

AUTHOR

Author: Graham Ollis <[email protected]>

Contributors:

Bakkiaraj Murugesan (bakkiaraj)

Dylan Cali (calid)

pipcet

Zaki Mughal (zmughal)

Fitz Elliott (felliott)

Vickenty Fesunov (vyf)

Gregor Herrmann (gregoa)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2015 by Graham Ollis.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.