Malloc and calloc function, Operating System

Assignment Help:

Note that the parameter for scanf doesn't need the address operators & because name is an address. However the variable name has no defined space. This can cause problems within C and we really should define the space .Within C we can allocate space by means of character array or system functions namely malloc, free and calloc.If we declare a character array, it also reserves the space required for that string (After all a string is a collection i.e. array of characters). Therefore the program becomes

    #include stdio.h
    void main()
    {
    char prompt;
    /*Author : Mr James Mc Carren  
    Company: Staffordshire University  
     Date: 26th August 2012  
    Version 1.0  
    Function : String storing using static storage       
     Modifications:   none*/
    char name[20];
    scanf("%s",name);
    printf("your name is %s \n\r",name);  
    printf("Press and key to exit \n\r");
    scanf("\n%c",&prompt);
    }
This allocates 20 spaces to the string name, however if we wish to input a 50 character  string , we would need to re-compile the program , an alternative is to use Malloc/Free .Malloc checks during run time whether there is enough  space left and if there is it allocated it while Free  releases the space allocated to a variable .The syntax for malloc/Free is  
 
     variable = ( char *)malloc(char size);
     free(variable);
 
Therefore the program becomes
 
    #include stdio.h
    #include stdlib.h
    void main()
    {
    char prompt;
   
     Date: 26th August 2012 
    Version 1.0 
    Function : String storing using dynamic allocation       
     Modifications:   none*/
      char *name;
      name = (char *)malloc(20);
      if (name == NULL) 
      {
      printf("Cannot allocate memory\n\r");
      exit(1);
      }
      scanf("%s",name);
      printf("your name is %s \n\r",name); 

      free(name);  
    printf("Press and key to exit \n\r");
    scanf("\n%c",&prompt);
    }

  Because Malloc allocates memory dynamically, we must place a trap routine to detect when the microprocessor cannot allocate memory (i.e. memory full), in this case malloc returns a NULL character back as the address of the variable i.e. This routine would detect the NULL character and exit the program .Note that malloced space is similar to a variable in that its life span is automatically terminated when a free command is used or the function where it was allocated ends no matter what you make read - this is not the case in C++  
 
      if (name == NULL) 
      {
      printf("Cannot allocate memory\n\r");
      exit(1);
      }
 
Therefore we could allocate a scratch pad of memory using malloc and we can poke around in that
area e.g.
 
  #include
    #include
    void main()
    { 
    char prompt;  
  
     Date: 26th August 2012
    Version 1.0 
Function : Dynamic allocation  of windows pointr area i.e segmented memory     
     Modifications:   none*/
 
      char *name;
      unsigned long int address;
      unsigned char *add;
      unsigned char data;
      name = (char *)malloc(0x4000);
      if (name == NULL) 
      {
      printf("Cannot allocate memory\n\r");
      exit(1);
      }
printf("Your segment area is %08lx to %08lx\n\r",name,name+(unsigned long int)0x4000);
printf("Please enter in the address  you want to read in the segment area\n\r");
scanf("%lx",&address);
add = (unsigned char *)address;
data = *add;
printf("The data at the address %08lx is %02x\n\r",address,data); 
printf("Press and key to exit \n\r");
scanf("\n%c",&prompt);
}


Related Discussions:- Malloc and calloc function

Read - write cycles of microprocessors, Examining the write/cycles as shown...

Examining the write/cycles as shown below We can see that the bus is designed for asynchronous read/write cycles. The operation of the write cycle is simple in that the add

Differences among user-level threads and kernel-level thread, Q. What are t...

Q. What are two differences among user-level threads and kernel-level threads? Under what situations is one type better than the other? Answer: (1) User-level threads are un

Graph - plotting job, This exercise uses a graph-plotting program ( gnuplot...

This exercise uses a graph-plotting program ( gnuplot ) to convert tabular data into an image. This is a technique that is very widely used to visualize scientific data; with app

Linear Programing, . A paper mill produces two grades of paper viz., X and ...

. A paper mill produces two grades of paper viz., X and Y. Because of raw material restrictions, it cannot produce more than 400 tons of grade X paper and 300 tons of grade Y paper

What is page fault?, What is page fault? In the computer storage techno...

What is page fault? In the computer storage technology a page fault is an exception which is raised by the memory management unit when a requested page isn't mapped in physical

Correct the code for visitor and vehicle portion, Gopher Gallery consists o...

Gopher Gallery consists of a shopping mall and a cart ride that covers the 150 acre habitat. There are m visitors and n single-person vehicles. Visitors stroll around the mall at t

Define drawback of distributed systems, Define drawback of Distributed syst...

Define drawback of Distributed systems Reliability is a drawback of Distributed systems

Protection scheme in unix, Q. Consider a system that holds 5000 users. Pre...

Q. Consider a system that holds 5000 users. Presume that you want to allow 4990 of these users to be able to access one file. a. How would you denote this protection scheme in

Direct communicatio., Consider a scenario of post mailbox, there are two pr...

Consider a scenario of post mailbox, there are two processes named sender S and receiver R. Both processes can communicate with each other by name along with message. You need to I

Write Your Message!

Captcha
Free Assignment Quote

Assured A++ Grade

Get guaranteed satisfaction & time on delivery in every assignment order you paid with us! We ensure premium quality solution document along with free turntin report!

All rights reserved! Copyrights ©2019-2020 ExpertsMind IT Educational Pvt Ltd