glenda.party
term% ls -F
term% pwd
$home/manuals/9front/2/bin
term% cat index.txt
BIN(2)                        System Calls Manual                       BIN(2)

NAME
       binalloc, bingrow, binfree - grouped memory allocation

SYNOPSIS
       #include <u.h>
       #include <libc.h>
       #include <bin.h>

       typedef struct Bin  Bin;

       void  *binalloc(Bin **bp, ulong size, int clr);

       void  *bingrow(Bin **bp, void *op, ulong osize,
             ulong size, int clr);

       void  binfree(Bin **bp);

DESCRIPTION
       These  routines  provide simple grouped memory allocation and dealloca‐
       tion.  Items allocated with binalloc are added to the Bin pointed to by
       bp.  All items in a bin may be freed with one call to binfree; there is
       no way to free a single item.

       Binalloc returns a pointer to a new block of at least size bytes.   The
       block  is  suitably  aligned for storage of any type of object.  No two
       active pointers from binalloc will have the same value.  The  call  bi‐
       nalloc(0)  returns  a  valid  pointer rather than null.  If clr is non-
       zero, the allocated memory is set to 0; otherwise, the contents are un‐
       defined.

       Bingrow is used to extend the size of a block of memory returned by bi‐
       nalloc.  Bp must point to the same bin group used to allocate the orig‐
       inal block, and osize must be the last size used to  allocate  or  grow
       the  block.   A  pointer to a block of at least size bytes is returned,
       with the same contents in the first osize locations.  If  clr  is  non-
       zero,  the  remaining  bytes are set to 0, and are undefined otherwise.
       If op is nil, it and osize are ignored, and the result is the  same  as
       calling binalloc.

       Binalloc  and  bingrow  allocate large chunks of memory using malloc(2)
       and return pieces of these chunks.  The chunks are free'd upon  a  call
       to binfree.

SOURCE
       /sys/src/libbin

SEE ALSO
       malloc(2)

DIAGNOSTICS
       binalloc and bingrow return 0 if there is no available memory.

                                                                        BIN(2)