Somehow this call to free()
is not working. I ran this application on Windows and followed the memory using in Task Manager, but saw no reduction in memory usage after the call to free()
.
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
int i=0;
int *ptr;
ptr = (int*) malloc(sizeof(int) * 1000);
for (i=0; i < 1000; i++)
{
ptr[i] = 0;
}
free(ptr); // After this call, the program memory usage doesn't decrease
system("PAUSE");
return 0;
}
Typical C implementations do not return free:d memory to the operating system. It is available for use by the same program, but not to others.