free - Free memory space

Definition	#include <stdlib.h> void free(void *p); free releases the memory space pointed to by p. p must be the the result of a previous malloc, calloc, or realloc call. Otherwise, the result is undefined! free is part of a C-specific memory management package with its own free memory management facility. Memory released with free is not returned to the operating system but is taken by the free memory management facility (cf. garbcoll function).
Example	The following program fragment deallocates memory space that was previously reserved with malloc. #include <stdlib.h> char *buf; buf = (char *)malloc(100); . . free(buf);
See also	malloc, calloc, realloc, garbcoll