From: Charles Sandmann <sandmann AT clio DOT rice DOT edu>
Newsgroups: comp.os.msdos.djgpp
Subject: Re: malloc/free blues - for Peter Claessens
Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 10:16:12 CDT
Organization: Rice University, Houston, TX
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> > From: "Gisle Vanem" <giva AT bgnett DOT no>
> > Date: Thu, 17 Jul 2003 16:00:13 +0200
> > 
> > #include <crt0.h>
> > int _crt0_startup_flags =  _CRT0_FLAG_FILL_SBRK_MEMORY |
> >                   _CRT0_FLAG_FILL_DEADBEEF;
> > 
> > in the main module.
> 
> I think this will only help if an uninitialized pointers are passed to
> `free'.  It is much more probable that the bug is in some code that
> writes past the end of an allocated buffer; in that case, I don't
> think the above will help (but it won't hurt to try that).

I agree he should set the deadbeef flag even if the problem is in free,
since this will make the behavior consistent between runs.  For example,
he might be passing an uninitialized value to free - and when you
see the deadbeef (or something close) - you know you've got a bug.

If the program fails in two different places when run twice, always
fill the memory.