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NAME

       malloc - .TH "malloc" 3 "Thu Aug 12 2010" "Version 1.6.8" "avr-libc"

NAME

       malloc - .SH "Introduction"

       Many of the devices that are possible targets of avr-libc have a
       minimal amount of RAM. The smallest parts supported by the C
       environment come with 128 bytes of RAM. This needs to be shared between
       initialized and uninitialized variables (sections .data and .bss), the
       dynamic memory allocator, and the stack that is used for calling
       subroutines and storing local (automatic) variables.

       Also, unlike larger architectures, there is no hardware-supported
       memory management which could help in separating the mentioned RAM
       regions from being overwritten by each other.

       The standard RAM layout is to place .data variables first, from the
       beginning of the internal RAM, followed by .bss. The stack is started
       from the top of internal RAM, growing downwards. The so-called 'heap'
       available for the dynamic memory allocator will be placed beyond the
       end of .bss. Thus, there's no risk that dynamic memory will ever
       collide with the RAM variables (unless there were bugs in the
       implementation of the allocator). There is still a risk that the heap
       and stack could collide if there are large requirements for either
       dynamic memory or stack space. The former can even happen if the
       allocations aren't all that large but dynamic memory allocations get
       fragmented over time such that new requests don't quite fit into the
       'holes' of previously freed regions. Large stack space requirements can
       arise in a C function containing large and/or numerous local variables
       or when recursively calling function.

       Note:
           The pictures shown in this document represent typical situations
           where the RAM locations refer to an ATmega128. The memory addresses
           used are not displayed in a linear scale.

       RAM map of a device with internal RAMRAM map of a device with internal
       RAM

       On a simple device like a microcontroller it is a challenge to
       implement a dynamic memory allocator that is simple enough so the code
       size requirements will remain low, yet powerful enough to avoid
       unnecessary memory fragmentation and to get it all done with reasonably
       few CPU cycles. Microcontrollers are often low on space and also run at
       much lower speeds than the typical PC these days.

       The memory allocator implemented in avr-libc tries to cope with all of
       these constraints, and offers some tuning options that can be used if
       there are more resources available than in the default configuration.

Internal vs. external RAM

       Obviously, the constraints are much harder to satisfy in the default
       configuration where only internal RAM is available. Extreme care must
       be taken to avoid a stack-heap collision, both by making sure functions
       aren't nesting too deeply, and don't require too much stack space for
       local variables, as well as by being cautious with allocating too much
       dynamic memory.

       If external RAM is available, it is strongly recommended to move the
       heap into the external RAM, regardless of whether or not the variables
       from the .data and .bss sections are also going to be located there.
       The stack should always be kept in internal RAM. Some devices even
       require this, and in general, internal RAM can be accessed faster since
       no extra wait states are required. When using dynamic memory allocation
       and stack and heap are separated in distinct memory areas, this is the
       safest way to avoid a stack-heap collision.

Tunables for malloc()

       There are a number of variables that can be tuned to adapt the behavior
       of malloc() to the expected requirements and constraints of the
       application. Any changes to these tunables should be made before the
       very first call to malloc(). Note that some library functions might
       also use dynamic memory (notably those from the <stdio.h>: Standard IO
       facilities), so make sure the changes will be done early enough in the
       startup sequence.

       The variables __malloc_heap_start and __malloc_heap_end can be used to
       restrict the malloc() function to a certain memory region. These
       variables are statically initialized to point to __heap_start and
       __heap_end, respectively, where __heap_start is filled in by the linker
       to point just beyond .bss, and __heap_end is set to 0 which makes
       malloc() assume the heap is below the stack.

       If the heap is going to be moved to external RAM, __malloc_heap_end
       must be adjusted accordingly. This can either be done at run-time, by
       writing directly to this variable, or it can be done automatically at
       link-time, by adjusting the value of the symbol __heap_end.

        The following example shows a linker command to relocate the entire
       .data and .bss segments, and the heap to location 0x1100 in external
       RAM. The heap will extend up to address 0xffff.

       avr-gcc ... -Wl,--section-start,.data=0x801100,--defsym=__heap_end=0x80ffff ...

       Note:
           See explanation for offset 0x800000. See the chapter about using
           gcc for the -Wl options.

           The ld (linker) user manual states that using -Tdata=<x> is
           equivalent to using --section-start,.data=<x>. However, you have to
           use --section-start as above because the GCC frontend also sets the
           -Tdata option for all MCU types where the SRAM doesn't start at
           0x800060. Thus, the linker is being faced with two -Tdata options.
           Sarting with binutils 2.16, the linker changed the preference, and
           picks the 'wrong' option in this situation.

       Internal RAM: stack only, external RAM: variables and heapInternal RAM:
       stack only, external RAM: variables and heap

       If dynamic memory should be placed in external RAM, while keeping the
       variables in internal RAM, something like the following could be used.
       Note that for demonstration purposes, the assignment of the various
       regions has not been made adjacent in this example, so there are
       'holes' below and above the heap in external RAM that remain completely
       unaccessible by regular variables or dynamic memory allocations (shown
       in light bisque color in the picture below).

       avr-gcc ... -Wl,--defsym=__heap_start=0x802000,--defsym=__heap_end=0x803fff ...

       Internal RAM: variables and stack, external RAM: heapInternal RAM:
       variables and stack, external RAM: heap

       If __malloc_heap_end is 0, the allocator attempts to detect the bottom
       of stack in order to prevent a stack-heap collision when extending the
       actual size of the heap to gain more space for dynamic memory. It will
       not try to go beyond the current stack limit, decreased by
       __malloc_margin bytes. Thus, all possible stack frames of interrupt
       routines that could interrupt the current function, plus all further
       nested function calls must not require more stack space, or they will
       risk colliding with the data segment.

       The default value of __malloc_margin is set to 32.

Implementation details

       Dynamic memory allocation requests will be returned with a two-byte
       header prepended that records the size of the allocation. This is later
       used by free(). The returned address points just beyond that header.
       Thus, if the application accidentally writes before the returned memory
       region, the internal consistency of the memory allocator is
       compromised.

       The implementation maintains a simple freelist that accounts for memory
       blocks that have been returned in previous calls to free(). Note that
       all of this memory is considered to be successfully added to the heap
       already, so no further checks against stack-heap collisions are done
       when recycling memory from the freelist.

       The freelist itself is not maintained as a separate data structure, but
       rather by modifying the contents of the freed memory to contain
       pointers chaining the pieces together. That way, no additional memory
       is reqired to maintain this list except for a variable that keeps track
       of the lowest memory segment available for reallocation. Since both, a
       chain pointer and the size of the chunk need to be recorded in each
       chunk, the minimum chunk size on the freelist is four bytes.

       When allocating memory, first the freelist is walked to see if it could
       satisfy the request. If there's a chunk available on the freelist that
       will fit the request exactly, it will be taken, disconnected from the
       freelist, and returned to the caller. If no exact match could be found,
       the closest match that would just satisfy the request will be used. The
       chunk will normally be split up into one to be returned to the caller,
       and another (smaller) one that will remain on the freelist. In case
       this chunk was only up to two bytes larger than the request, the
       request will simply be altered internally to also account for these
       additional bytes since no separate freelist entry could be split off in
       that case.

       If nothing could be found on the freelist, heap extension is attempted.
       This is where __malloc_margin will be considered if the heap is
       operating below the stack, or where __malloc_heap_end will be verified
       otherwise.

       If the remaining memory is insufficient to satisfy the request, NULL
       will eventually be returned to the caller.

       When calling free(), a new freelist entry will be prepared. An attempt
       is then made to aggregate the new entry with possible adjacent entries,
       yielding a single larger entry available for further allocations. That
       way, the potential for heap fragmentation is hopefully reduced.

       A call to realloc() first determines whether the operation is about to
       grow or shrink the current allocation. When shrinking, the case is
       easy: the existing chunk is split, and the tail of the region that is
       no longer to be used is passed to the standard free() function for
       insertion into the freelist. Checks are first made whether the tail
       chunk is large enough to hold a chunk of its own at all, otherwise
       realloc() will simply do nothing, and return the original region.

       When growing the region, it is first checked whether the existing
       allocation can be extended in-place. If so, this is done, and the
       original pointer is returned without copying any data contents. As a
       side-effect, this check will also record the size of the largest chunk
       on the freelist.

       If the region cannot be extended in-place, but the old chunk is at the
       top of heap, and the above freelist walk did not reveal a large enough
       chunk on the freelist to satisfy the new request, an attempt is made to
       quickly extend this topmost chunk (and thus the heap), so no need
       arises to copy over the existing data. If there's no more space
       available in the heap (same check is done as in malloc()), the entire
       request will fail.

       Otherwise, malloc() will be called with the new request size, the
       existing data will be copied over, and free() will be called on the old
       region.