.\" Copyright (c) 1991 The Regents of the University of California.
.\" All rights reserved.
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.\" This code is derived from software contributed to Berkeley by
.\" the American National Standards Committee X3, on Information
.\" Processing Systems.
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.\"     from: @(#)free.3	5.2 (Berkeley) 6/29/91
.\"	$Id: free.3,v 1.1 1995/10/18 08:42:17 deraadt Exp $
.\"
.Dd June 29, 1991
.Dt FREE 3
.Os
.Sh NAME
.Nm free
.Nd free up memory allocated with malloc, calloc or realloc
.Sh SYNOPSIS
.Fd #include <stdlib.h>
.Ft void
.Fn free "void *ptr"
.Sh DESCRIPTION
The
.Fn free
function causes the space pointed to by
.Fa ptr
to be deallocated, that is, made available
for further allocation.
If
.Fa ptr
is a null pointer, no action occurs.
Otherwise, if the argument does not match a pointer earlier
returned by the
.Xr calloc ,
.Xr malloc ,
or
.Xr realloc
function, or if the space has been deallocated by a call to
.Fn free
or
.Xr realloc ,
general havoc may occur.
.Sh RETURN VALUES
The
.Fn free
function returns no value.
.Sh SEE ALSO
.Xr calloc 3 ,
.Xr malloc 3 ,
.Xr realloc 3
.Sh STANDARDS
The
.Fn free
function conforms to
.St -ansiC .