Memory Management in C, and concepts related to memory management

Memory Layout of a C
program
●
TEXT
●
Initialized Data
●
Uninitialized Data
●
Stack
●
Heap

Memory Layout
●
When a program is executed, the Operating
System provides a chunk of memory for the
program to use.
●
TEXT, Initialized data, Uninitialized Data and
Stack have fixed sizes
●
The heap size can be dynamically adjusted
through system calls.

TEXT
●
This is where the compiled binary code of
your program is stored
Compiler
This will get loaded
into the TEXT portion

Initialized data
●
Contains global and static variables that
have been initialized by the programmer

Uninitialized data
●
Contains global and static variables that
have not been initialized by the programmer

Stack
●
Used for storing local variables and function
management.
●
Stack size is limited, you can fill the stack upto
the limit (a stack overflow will occur if you try to
exceed this limit)
●
Stack is last-in first-out (that’s why it’s called a
stack)

Stack
●
What can we store in the stack?
●
Primitive data types
- int, float, char
●
Pointers
- int*, char*
●
Fixed size arrays
●
Fixed size structs

Heap
●
Heap size is virtually unlilmited. When you run
out of heap size, you can request more memory
from the Operating system.
●
Heap can be used to store large amounts of
data
●
Store something in heap, then store a pointer to
that data in the stack.

Heap
●
What can we store in the heap? (anything)
●
Integers, Floats, chars
●
Arrays, Linked lists

Heap
●
Think of heap as a lecture hall
●
There are rows and columns of chairs
●
Some people sit in groups
●
Some people sit alone
●
There can be a lot of empty seats

Pointers in c
●
Pass a copy of the value
●
Pass a pointer to the value
●
Pass a pointer to a pointer

Memory Management in C, and concepts related to memory management

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