Alternative for ReAllocMem that zeros the new allocation - delphi

I need to ReAllocMem a block, but the extension should be zero'ed.
For this reason ReAllocMem is no good:
From the helpfile:
ReallocMem reallocates a memory block.
[...]
The content of the newly allocated memory is not set to zero.
I've looked at ReAllocMemory, but the help does not state anything about zeroing the new allocation, it only states:
Note: ReallocMemory is the version of ReallocMem compatible with C++.
Is there an alternative that does zero the newly allocated memory?

The simple answer is no. The only raw memory reallocator is ReallocMem. There is nothing else. The design of a re-allocator is always to preserve the contents that were there before. You will have to write your own routine.

David is right but using WinAp it's possible: you can use Global Alloc and GlobalReAlloc using the GMEM_ZEROINIT flag.

Related

Does dart reuse memory for previously used instances?

It is hard to find a good heading for this, but i think my problem comes clear if i post a small code snipped:
SomeObject instance = SomeObject(importantParameter);
// -> "instance" is now a reference to the instance somewhere in RAM
instance = SomeObject(anotherImportantParameter);
// -> "instance" is now a reference to a different instance somewhere in RAM
My question is now, is the used RAM that was allocated at the first construction reused at the second construction? Or is the RAM of the first instance marked as unused for the garbage collector and the second construction is done with a completely new instance with a different portion of RAM?
If the first is true, what with this:
while(true) {
final SomeObject instance = SomeObject(importantParameter);
}
Will then, each time the while is repeated, the RAM be reused?
It's unspecified. The answer is a resounding "maybe".
The language specification never says what happens to unreachable objects, since it's unobservable to the program. (That's what being unreachable means).
In practice, the native Dart implementation uses a generational garbage collector.
The default behavior would be to allocate a new object in "new-space" and overwrite the reference to the previous object. That makes the previous object unreachable (as long as you haven't store other references to it), and it can therefore be garbage collected. If you really go through objects quickly, that will be cheap, since the unreachable object is completely ignored on the next new-space garbage collection.
Allocating a lot of short-lived objects still has an overhead since it causes new-space GC to happen more often, even if the individual objects don't themselves cost anything.
There is also a number of optimization that may change this behavior.
If your object is sufficiently simple and the compiler can see that no reference to it ever escapes, or is used in an identical check, or ... any other number of relevant restrictions, then it might "allocation sink" the object. That means it never actually allocates the object, it just stores the contents somewhere, perhaps even on the stack, and it also inlines the methods so they refer to the data directly instead of going through a this pointer.
In that case, your code may actually reuse the memory of the previous object, because the compiler recognizes that it can.
Do not try to predict whether an optimization like this happens. The requirements can change at any time. Just write code that is correct and not unnecessarily complex, then the compiler will do its best to optimize in all the ways that it can.

where does dynamic memory variable live in memory in the following situation?

Let's say what have a dynamic memory variable which we created using malloc.
dynamic_memory_variable = malloc(byte_size)
That dynamic memory is obviously allocated on heap, however where does dynamic_memory_variable live?
If I am not mistaken, it is a local variable living on stack because it is now a local variable for the function call? Am I correct in presuming that?
You're correct, dynamic_memory_variable will is only a variable/pointer to the memory. The variable will only live on the stack, but the memory where it's referencing to is on the heap. If you lose the pointer, the memory is still allocated, but not accessible, nor deallocable anymore.

obejective c - Portential leak of an object stored into

I am trying to Run the code but its reporting the memory leaks when using static analyzer. on this line as Potential leak of an object stored into 'encodedData'
return encodedData;
use __bridge_transfer
Using __bridge_transfer ensures that ARC will release the object for you. Without __bridge_transfer, you must release the returned object manually.
__bridge,__bridge_transfer keywords are used to tell to ARC system how to handle your non-objective-c pointers. In essence, if you use __bridge, you are telling to ARC not to deal with the ownership of the converted pointer because you will free it from non-objective-c code, most likely with a free() or a CFRelease... type function. __bridge_transfer, on the other hand, transfers the ownership to ARC and ARC will free your objective-c (and thus also the original non-objective-c) object via the standard release mechanism when the references to that object hits zero.
Reference
The problem is that you create your string using CoreFoundation methods. And by default ARC doesn't know what to do with it. So, you're responsible for either manually managing the memory for the created object (using CFRelease for example), or handing it over to ARC.
The later is, I believe, the way to go in your case. You can do it, as others have already noted, using __bridge_transfer.

Apple Instruments - Reference Counting

I'm having trouble understanding what's happening here. I am debugging an app because I think it's retaining a class 'DownloadController' after its been used. Using ARC, it should automatically release the object when the Reference Count is zero.
So in instruments it looks like
From that I assume, that 48 bytes have are still 'live' and being used, correct?
So I try to find what is causing this object to be retained, when its no longer needed, by using reference count traces.
At the bottom it says, RefCt is zero; so why has the object not been released? How can I debug further, why it hasn't been released?
These ARC anomilies were being caused by NSZombieEnabled, after removing this argument it started freeing objects.

Defining Objective-C blocks as properties - best practice

I've recently come across an Apple document that shows the following property declaration for a block:
#interface XYZObject : NSObject
#property (copy) void (^blockProperty)(void);
#end
Also, this article states:
Note: You should specify copy as the property attribute, because a block needs to be copied to keep track of its captured state outside of the original scope. This isn’t something you need to worry about when using Automatic Reference Counting, as it will happen automatically, but it’s best practice for the property attribute to show the resultant behavior. For more information, see Blocks Programming Topics.
I also read the suggested Blocks Programming Topics but haven't found anything relevant there.
I'm still curious as to why defining a block property as "copy" is best practice. If you have a good answer, please try to distinguish between ARC and MRC differences if there are any.
Thank you
By default blocks are created on the stack. Meaning they only exist in the scope they have been created in.
In case you want to access them later they have to be copied to the heap by sending a copy message to the block object. ARC will do this for you as soon as it detects a block needs to be accessed outside the scope its created in. As a best practise you declare any block property as copy because that's the way it should be under automatic memory management.
Read Stack and Heap Objects in Objective-C by Mike Ash for more info on stack vs. heap.
Blocks are, by default, allocated on the stack. This is an optimization, since stack allocation is much cheaper than heap allocation. Stack allocation means that, by default again, a block will cease to exist when the scope in which it is declared exits. So a block property with retain semantics will result in a dangling pointer to a block that doesn't exist anymore.
To move a block from the stack to the heap (and thus give it normal Objective-C memory management semantics and an extended lifetime), you must copy the block via [theBlock copy], Block_copy(theBlock), etc. Once on the heap, the block's lifetime can be managed as needed by retaining/releasing it. (Yes, this applies in ARC too, you just don't have to call -retain/-release yourself.)
So you want to declare block properties with copy semantics so the block is copied when the property is set, avoiding a dangling pointer to a stack-based block.
The "best practices" you refer to simply say, "Seeing as ARC is going to magically copy your block no matter what you write here, it's best you explicitly write 'copy' so as not to confuse future generations looking at your code."
Explanation follows:
Typically, you shouldn’t need to copy (or retain) a block. You only need to make a copy when you expect the block to be used after destruction of the scope within which it was declared. Copying moves a block to the heap.
–Blocks Programming Topics: Using Blocks, Copying Blocks
Clearly, assigning a block to a property means it could be used after the scope it was declared in has been destroyed. Thus, according to Blocks Programming Topics that block should be copied to the heap with Block_copy.
But ARC takes care of this for you:
Blocks “just work” when you pass blocks up the stack in ARC mode, such as in a return. You don’t have to call Block Copy any more.
–Transitioning to ARC
Note that this isn't about the retain semantics the block. There's simply no way for the block's context to exist without being moved off the (soon-to-be-popped) stack and on to the heap. So regardless of what attributes you qualify your #property with, ARC is still going to copy the block.

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