.\" Copyright (C) 2006 Jason Evans . .\" All rights reserved. .\" .\" Redistribution and use in source and binary forms, with or without .\" modification, are permitted provided that the following conditions .\" are met: .\" 1. Redistributions of source code must retain the above copyright .\" notice(s), this list of conditions and the following disclaimer as .\" the first lines of this file unmodified other than the possible .\" addition of one or more copyright notices. .\" 2. Redistributions in binary form must reproduce the above copyright .\" notice(s), this list of conditions and the following disclaimer in .\" the documentation and/or other materials provided with the .\" distribution. .\" .\" THIS SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED BY THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER(S) ``AS IS'' AND ANY .\" EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, THE .\" IMPLIED WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY AND FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR .\" PURPOSE ARE DISCLAIMED. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE COPYRIGHT HOLDER(S) BE .\" LIABLE FOR ANY DIRECT, INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, EXEMPLARY, OR .\" CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES (INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, PROCUREMENT OF .\" SUBSTITUTE GOODS OR SERVICES; LOSS OF USE, DATA, OR PROFITS; OR .\" BUSINESS INTERRUPTION) HOWEVER CAUSED AND ON ANY THEORY OF LIABILITY, .\" WHETHER IN CONTRACT, STRICT LIABILITY, OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE .\" OR OTHERWISE) ARISING IN ANY WAY OUT OF THE USE OF THIS SOFTWARE, .\" EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGE. .\" .Dd April 7, 2019 .Dt POSIX_MEMALIGN 3 .Os .Sh NAME .Nm posix_memalign , .Nm aligned_alloc .Nd aligned memory allocation .Sh LIBRARY .Lb libc .Sh SYNOPSIS .In stdlib.h .Ft int .Fn posix_memalign "void **ptr" "size_t alignment" "size_t size" .Ft void * .Fn aligned_alloc "size_t alignment" "size_t size" .Sh DESCRIPTION The .Fn posix_memalign function allocates .Fa size bytes of memory such that the allocation's base address is an even multiple of .Fa alignment , and returns the allocation in the value pointed to by .Fa ptr . .Pp The requested .Fa alignment must be a power of 2 at least as large as .Fn sizeof "void *" . .Pp Memory that is allocated via .Fn posix_memalign can be used as an argument in subsequent calls to .Xr realloc 3 , .Xr reallocf 3 , and .Xr free 3 . .Pp The .Fn aligned_alloc is similar to .Fn posix_memalign , but it does not have the .Fn sizeof "void *" restriction, takes just .Fa alignment and .Fa size and the allocation pointer is returned. .Sh IMPLEMENTATION NOTES The .Fn posix_memalign function is directly supported by matching the requested alignment against a zone of the slab allocator with a compatible chunking, and using the power-of-2 shortcut whenever possible. Alignments beyond those supported by the zone mechanism are still guaranteed using cute .Xr mmap 2 tricks. Our .Fn posix_memalign is thus able to take advantage of the slab allocator to produce well-fitted results when the requests are reasonable. .Sh RETURN VALUES The .Fn posix_memalign function returns the value 0 if successful; otherwise it returns an error value. The .Fn aligned_alloc returns a pointer to the allocated memory if successful; otherwise a .Dv NULL pointer is returned and .Va errno is set. .Sh ERRORS The .Fn posix_memalign and .Fn aligned_alloc functions will fail if: .Bl -tag -width Er .It Bq Er EINVAL The .Fa alignment parameter is not a power of 2 at least as large as .Fn sizeof "void *" . .It Bq Er ENOMEM Memory allocation error. .El .Sh SEE ALSO .Xr free 3 , .Xr malloc 3 , .Xr realloc 3 , .Xr reallocf 3 , .Xr valloc 3 .Sh STANDARDS The .Fn posix_memalign function conforms to .St -p1003.1-2008 . The .Fn aligned_alloc function conforms to .St -isoC-2011 .