REALLOCARRAY(3)

REALLOCARRAY(3) | Library Functions Manual | REALLOCARRAY(3)

# NAME

`reallocarray` — reallocate memory for an array of elements checking for overflow

# SYNOPSIS

`#include <stdlib.h>`

void *
`reallocarray`(void *ptr, size_t nmemb, size_t size);

# DESCRIPTION

The `reallocarray`() function reallocates the pointer ptr to a size appropriate to handle an allocation of nmemb elements in an array where each of the array elements is size bytes using realloc(3) and making sure that overflow does not happen in the multiplication of “nmemb * size”. Otherwise it behaves like realloc(3).

# RETURN VALUES

The `reallocarray`() function will return `NULL` if there was overflow or if realloc(3) failed setting errno to `ENOMEM` or preserving the value from realloc(3).

# SEE ALSO

malloc(3), realloc(3), reallocarr(3)

# HISTORY

The `reallocarray`() function first appeared in OpenBSD 5.6. `reallocarray`() was redesigned in NetBSD 8 as `reallocarr`(3). Until NetBSD 10, `reallocarray` was available in the _OPENBSD_SOURCE namespace.

# CAVEATS

The `reallocarray`() function was designed to facilitate safe, robust programming and overcome the shortcomings of the malloc(3) and realloc(3) functions by centralizing the overflow check in the multiplication of nmemb and size.

There are still portability issues. (It does not solve the `0` sized allocation return ambiguity in the C standard: does `reallocarray`() return `NULL` or a unique pointer to memory that cannot be accessed? Does a `NULL` mean that an error occurred, and can someone check `errno` in that case to find out what happened?) For this reason NetBSD decided to go with an alternative implementation, and created reallocarr(3).

September 9, 2022 | NetBSD 11.0