2 alloca -- (mostly) portable public-domain implementation -- D A Gwyn
4 last edit: 86/05/30 rms
5 include config.h, since on VMS it renames some symbols.
6 Use xmalloc instead of malloc.
8 This implementation of the PWB library alloca() function,
9 which is used to allocate space off the run-time stack so
10 that it is automatically reclaimed upon procedure exit,
11 was inspired by discussions with J. Q. Johnson of Cornell.
13 It should work under any C implementation that uses an
14 actual procedure stack (as opposed to a linked list of
15 frames). There are some preprocessor constants that can
16 be defined when compiling for your specific system, for
17 improved efficiency; however, the defaults should be okay.
19 The general concept of this implementation is to keep
20 track of all alloca()-allocated blocks, and reclaim any
21 that are found to be deeper in the stack than the current
22 invocation. This heuristic does not reclaim storage as
23 soon as it becomes invalid, but it will do so eventually.
25 As a special case, alloca(0) reclaims storage without
26 allocating any. It is a good idea to use alloca(0) in
27 your main control loop, etc. to force garbage collection.
30 static char SCCSid[] = "@(#)alloca.c 1.1"; /* for the "what" utility */
36 /* actually, only want this if static is defined as ""
37 -- this is for usg, in which emacs must undefine static
38 in order to make unexec workable
40 #ifndef STACK_DIRECTION
43 -- must know STACK_DIRECTION at compile-time
44 #endif /* STACK_DIRECTION undefined */
49 typedef void *pointer; /* generic pointer type */
51 typedef char *pointer; /* generic pointer type */
54 #define NULL 0 /* null pointer constant */
57 extern pointer xmalloc();
60 Define STACK_DIRECTION if you know the direction of stack
61 growth for your system; otherwise it will be automatically
64 STACK_DIRECTION > 0 => grows toward higher addresses
65 STACK_DIRECTION < 0 => grows toward lower addresses
66 STACK_DIRECTION = 0 => direction of growth unknown
69 #ifndef STACK_DIRECTION
70 #define STACK_DIRECTION 0 /* direction unknown */
73 #if STACK_DIRECTION != 0
75 #define STACK_DIR STACK_DIRECTION /* known at compile-time */
77 #else /* STACK_DIRECTION == 0; need run-time code */
79 static int stack_dir; /* 1 or -1 once known */
80 #define STACK_DIR stack_dir
83 find_stack_direction (/* void */)
85 static char *addr = NULL; /* address of first
86 `dummy', once known */
87 auto char dummy; /* to get stack address */
93 find_stack_direction (); /* recurse once */
95 else /* second entry */
97 stack_dir = 1; /* stack grew upward */
99 stack_dir = -1; /* stack grew downward */
102 #endif /* STACK_DIRECTION == 0 */
105 An "alloca header" is used to:
106 (a) chain together all alloca()ed blocks;
107 (b) keep track of stack depth.
109 It is very important that sizeof(header) agree with malloc()
110 alignment chunk size. The following default should work okay.
114 #define ALIGN_SIZE sizeof(double)
119 char align[ALIGN_SIZE]; /* to force sizeof(header) */
122 union hdr *next; /* for chaining headers */
123 char *deep; /* for stack depth measure */
128 alloca( size ) returns a pointer to at least `size' bytes of
129 storage which will be automatically reclaimed upon exit from
130 the procedure that called alloca(). Originally, this space
131 was supposed to be taken from the current stack frame of the
132 caller, but that method cannot be made to work for some
133 implementations of C, for example under Gould's UTX/32.
136 static header *last_alloca_header = NULL; /* -> last alloca header */
139 alloca (size) /* returns pointer to storage */
140 unsigned size; /* # bytes to allocate */
142 auto char probe; /* probes stack depth: */
143 register char *depth = &probe;
145 #if STACK_DIRECTION == 0
146 if (STACK_DIR == 0) /* unknown growth direction */
147 find_stack_direction ();
150 /* Reclaim garbage, defined as all alloca()ed storage that
151 was allocated from deeper in the stack than currently. */
154 register header *hp; /* traverses linked list */
156 for (hp = last_alloca_header; hp != NULL;)
157 if (STACK_DIR > 0 && hp->h.deep > depth
158 || STACK_DIR < 0 && hp->h.deep < depth)
160 register header *np = hp->h.next;
162 free ((pointer) hp); /* collect garbage */
164 hp = np; /* -> next header */
167 break; /* rest are not deeper */
169 last_alloca_header = hp; /* -> last valid storage */
173 return NULL; /* no allocation required */
175 /* Allocate combined header + user data storage. */
178 register pointer new = xmalloc (sizeof (header) + size);
179 /* address of header */
181 ((header *)new)->h.next = last_alloca_header;
182 ((header *)new)->h.deep = depth;
184 last_alloca_header = (header *)new;
186 /* User storage begins just after header. */
188 return (pointer)((char *)new + sizeof(header));