9.2 Memory Interface

The following function sets, modeled after the ANSI C standard, are available for allocating and releasing memory from the Python heap:

void* PyMem_Malloc (size_t n)
Allocates n bytes and returns a pointer of type void* to the allocated memory, or NULL if the request fails. Requesting zero bytes returns a non-NULL pointer.

void* PyMem_Realloc (void *p, size_t n)
Resizes the memory block pointed to by p to n bytes. The contents will be unchanged to the minimum of the old and the new sizes. If p is NULL, the call is equivalent to PyMem_Malloc(n); if n is equal to zero, the memory block is resized but is not freed, and the returned pointer is non-NULL. Unless p is NULL, it must have been returned by a previous call to PyMem_Malloc() or PyMem_Realloc().

void PyMem_Free (void *p)
Frees the memory block pointed to by p, which must have been returned by a previous call to PyMem_Malloc() or PyMem_Realloc(). Otherwise, or if PyMem_Free(p) has been called before, undefined behaviour occurs. If p is NULL, no operation is performed.

The following type-oriented macros are provided for convenience. Note that TYPE refers to any C type.

TYPE* PyMem_New (TYPE, size_t n)
Same as PyMem_Malloc(), but allocates (n * sizeof(TYPE)) bytes of memory. Returns a pointer cast to TYPE*.

TYPE* PyMem_Resize (void *p, TYPE, size_t n)
Same as PyMem_Realloc(), but the memory block is resized to (n * sizeof(TYPE)) bytes. Returns a pointer cast to TYPE*.

void PyMem_Del (void *p)
Same as PyMem_Free().

In addition, the following macro sets are provided for calling the Python memory allocator directly, without involving the C API functions listed above. However, note that their use does not preserve binary compatibility accross Python versions and is therefore deprecated in extension modules.

PyMem_MALLOC(), PyMem_REALLOC(), PyMem_FREE().

PyMem_NEW(), PyMem_RESIZE(), PyMem_DEL().


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