A naukri.com initiative
Medium
1d
186
Image Credit: Medium
Build your own memory allocator
- The article discusses implementing a custom memory allocator in C/C++, requiring familiarity with memory segments, system calls, and low-level memory manipulation.
- The Virtual Address Space (VAS) allocated by the operating system to a program is divided into segments, with the stack growing downward and the heap upward.
- Memory allocation involves manipulating the program break (brk) using system calls like sbrk and working with raw memory blocks that can be cast to different data types.
- A basic malloc function is implemented using sbrk, but a more sophisticated approach with metadata storage for memory blocks is needed for efficient memory management.
- Block metadata includes size, allocation status, and pointers for efficient memory tracking and reuse.
- Ensuring memory blocks are aligned to the machine's word size and merging adjacent free blocks helps reduce fragmentation.
- Strategies like First-fit, Next-fit, and Best-fit are discussed for block allocation, each with its pros and cons.
- The allocator maintains pointers for block iteration and requests more memory from the OS if needed.
- Functions for block splitting and using platform-specific memory allocation calls like sbrk or VirtualAlloc are included.
- Implementing calloc and realloc is straightforward by calling malloc and memset functions.
- Building a custom memory allocator enhances understanding of memory management, optimization strategies, and cross-platform compatibility.
Read Full Article
11 Likes
For uninterrupted reading, download the app