NAME

FFI::Platypus::Memory - Memory functions for FFI

VERSION

version 1.50

SYNOPSIS

 use FFI::Platypus::Memory;
 
 # allocate 64 bytes of memory using the
 # libc malloc function.
 my $pointer = malloc 64;
 
 # use that memory wisely
 ...
 
 # free the memory when you are done.
 free $pointer;

DESCRIPTION

This module provides an interface to common memory functions provided by the standard C library. They may be useful when constructing interfaces to C libraries with FFI. It works mostly with the opaque type and it is worth reviewing the section on opaque pointers in FFI::Platypus::Type.

FUNCTIONS

calloc

 my $pointer = calloc $count, $size;

The calloc function contiguously allocates enough space for $count objects that are $size bytes of memory each.

free

 free $pointer;

The free function frees the memory allocated by malloc, calloc, realloc or strdup. It is important to only free memory that you yourself have allocated. A good way to crash your program is to try and free a pointer that some C library has returned to you.

malloc

 my $pointer = malloc $size;

The malloc function allocates $size bytes of memory.

memcpy

 memcpy $dst_pointer, $src_pointer, $size;

The memcpy function copies $size bytes from $src_pointer to $dst_pointer. It also returns $dst_pointer.

memset

 memset $buffer, $value, $length;

The memset function writes $length bytes of $value to the address specified by $buffer.

realloc

 my $new_pointer = realloc $old_pointer, $size;

The realloc function reallocates enough memory to fit $size bytes. It copies the existing data and frees $old_pointer.

If you pass undef in as $old_pointer, then it behaves exactly like malloc:

 my $pointer = realloc undef, 64; # same as malloc 64

strcpy

 strcpy $opaque, $string;

Copies the string to the memory location pointed to by $opaque.

strdup

 my $pointer = strdup $string;

The strdup function allocates enough memory to contain $string and then copies it to that newly allocated memory. This version of strdup returns an opaque pointer type, not a string type. This may seem a little strange, but returning a string type would not be very useful in Perl.

strndup

 my $pointer = strndup $string, $max;

The same as strdup above, except at most $max characters will be copied in the new string.

SEE ALSO

FFI::Platypus

Main Platypus documentation.

AUTHOR

Author: Graham Ollis <plicease@cpan.org>

Contributors:

Bakkiaraj Murugesan (bakkiaraj)

Dylan Cali (calid)

pipcet

Zaki Mughal (zmughal)

Fitz Elliott (felliott)

Vickenty Fesunov (vyf)

Gregor Herrmann (gregoa)

Shlomi Fish (shlomif)

Damyan Ivanov

Ilya Pavlov (Ilya33)

Petr Pisar (ppisar)

Mohammad S Anwar (MANWAR)

Håkon Hægland (hakonhagland, HAKONH)

Meredith (merrilymeredith, MHOWARD)

Diab Jerius (DJERIUS)

Eric Brine (IKEGAMI)

szTheory

José Joaquín Atria (JJATRIA)

COPYRIGHT AND LICENSE

This software is copyright (c) 2015,2016,2017,2018,2019,2020 by Graham Ollis.

This is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as the Perl 5 programming language system itself.

cpanm FFI::Platypus

perl -MCPAN -e shell
install FFI::Platypus