MALLOC_HOOK(3)		   Linux Programmer's Manual		MALLOC_HOOK(3)

NAME
       __malloc_hook,  __malloc_initialize_hook, __memalign_hook, __free_hook,
       __realloc_hook, __after_morecore_hook - malloc debugging variables

SYNOPSIS
       #include <malloc.h>

       void *(*__malloc_hook)(size_t size, const void *caller);

       void *(*__realloc_hook)(void *ptr, size_t size, const void *caller);

       void *(*__memalign_hook)(size_t alignment, size_t size,
				const void *caller);

       void (*__free_hook)(void *ptr, const void *caller);

       void (*__malloc_initialize_hook)(void);

       void (*__after_morecore_hook)(void);

DESCRIPTION
       The GNU C library lets you modify  the  behavior	 of  malloc(3),	 real‐
       loc(3),	and free(3) by specifying appropriate hook functions.  You can
       use these hooks to help you debug  programs  that  use  dynamic	memory
       allocation, for example.

       The  variable  __malloc_initialize_hook	points	at  a function that is
       called once when the malloc implementation is initialized.  This	 is  a
       weak  variable, so it can be overridden in the application with a defi‐
       nition like the following:

	   void (*__malloc_initialize_hook)(void) = my_init_hook;

       Now the function my_init_hook() can do the initialization of all hooks.

       The four functions pointed to by __malloc_hook, __realloc_hook, __mema‐
       lign_hook,  __free_hook	have a prototype like the functions malloc(3),
       realloc(3), memalign(3), free(3), respectively, except that they have a
       final  argument	caller	that  gives  the address of the caller of mal‐
       loc(3), etc.

       The variable __after_morecore_hook points at a function that is	called
       each time after sbrk(2) was asked for more memory.

CONFORMING TO
       These functions are GNU extensions.

NOTES
       The  use of these hook functions is not safe in multithreaded programs,
       and they are now deprecated.  Programmers should instead preempt	 calls
       to  the	relevant functions by defining and exporting functions such as
       "malloc" and "free".

EXAMPLE
       Here is a short example of how to use these variables.

       #include <stdio.h>
       #include <malloc.h>

       /* Prototypes for our hooks.  */
       static void my_init_hook(void);
       static void *my_malloc_hook(size_t, const void *);

       /* Variables to save original hooks. */
       static void *(*old_malloc_hook)(size_t, const void *);

       /* Override initializing hook from the C library. */
       void (*__malloc_initialize_hook) (void) = my_init_hook;

       static void
       my_init_hook(void)
       {
	   old_malloc_hook = __malloc_hook;
	   __malloc_hook = my_malloc_hook;
       }

       static void *
       my_malloc_hook(size_t size, const void *caller)
       {
	   void *result;

	   /* Restore all old hooks */
	   __malloc_hook = old_malloc_hook;

	   /* Call recursively */
	   result = malloc(size);

	   /* Save underlying hooks */
	   old_malloc_hook = __malloc_hook;

	   /* printf() might call malloc(), so protect it too. */
	   printf("malloc(%u) called from %p returns %p\n",
		   (unsigned int) size, caller, result);

	   /* Restore our own hooks */
	   __malloc_hook = my_malloc_hook;

	   return result;
       }

SEE ALSO
       mallinfo(3), malloc(3), mcheck(3), mtrace(3)

COLOPHON
       This page is part of release 3.63 of the Linux  man-pages  project.   A
       description  of	the project, and information about reporting bugs, can
       be found at http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.

GNU				  2010-10-13			MALLOC_HOOK(3)

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