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MontaukOS/programs/man/malloc.3
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.TH MALLOC 3
.SH NAME
malloc, mfree, realloc - userspace heap allocation
.SH SYNOPSIS
.BI void* montauk::malloc(uint64_t size);
.BI void montauk::mfree(void* ptr);
.BI void* montauk::realloc(void* ptr, uint64_t size);
.SH DESCRIPTION
The userspace heap provides dynamic memory allocation on top of
anonymous virtual memory. The Montauk C++ API and libc's
malloc/free API use the same process-wide allocator.
.SS malloc
Allocates 'size' bytes from the free list. Returns a 16-byte
aligned pointer, or nullptr on failure. When the free list is
empty, it reserves more pages from the kernel. Physical pages
are committed as they are first touched.
char* buf = (char*)montauk::malloc(1024);
.SS mfree
Returns the block to the userspace allocator. Arena blocks are
immediately reusable; large direct mappings are returned to the
kernel, including their virtual address range.
Passing nullptr is a safe no-op.
montauk::mfree(buf);
.SS realloc
Resizes the allocation to 'size' bytes. A block with sufficient
capacity is retained; otherwise a new block is allocated, the
smaller of old/new requested sizes is copied, and the old block
is freed. Integer overflow fails without changing the old block.
If ptr is nullptr, behaves like malloc.
buf = (char*)montauk::realloc(buf, 2048);
.SH IMPLEMENTATION
The allocator uses segregated size-class bins and a coalescing
address-ordered overflow list. Headers retain both requested size
and actual block extent. A process-wide lock serializes C and C++
allocation calls. All returned pointers are 16-byte aligned.
Allocations of 256 KiB or more use direct page mappings so they
can be released promptly. Smaller allocations use growing arenas.
.SH LOW-LEVEL PAGE API
For large allocations or when direct page control is needed:
void* montauk::alloc(uint64_t size); // SYS_ALLOC
void montauk::free(void* ptr); // SYS_FREE
alloc() reserves zero-filled, read/write, non-executable pages.
Size is rounded up to 4 KiB. Freed ranges are reusable.
.SH SEE ALSO
syscalls(2), file(2)