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brk(S)


brk, sbrk -- change data segment space allocation

Syntax

cc . . . -lc

int brk (endds)
char *endds;

char *sbrk (incr) int incr;

Description

The brk and sbrk system calls are used to change dynamically the amount of space allocated for the calling process's data segment (see exec(S)). The change is made by resetting the process's break value and allocating the appropriate amount of space. The break value is the address of the first location beyond the end of the data segment. The amount of allocated space increases as the break value increases. Newly allocated space is set to zero. If, however, the same memory space is reallocated to the same process, its contents are undefined.

The brk system call sets the break value to endds and changes the allocated space accordingly.

The sbrk system call adds incr bytes to the break value and changes the allocated space accordingly. incr can be negative, in which case the amount of allocated space is decreased.

The brk and sbrk system calls fail without making any change in the allocated space if one or more of the following is true:


[EAGAIN]
Total amount of system memory available for a read during physical IO is temporarily insufficient (see shmop(S)). This may occur even though the space requested was less than the system-imposed maximum process size.

[ENOMEM]
Use of brk or sbrk would result in more space being allocated than is allowed by the system-imposed maximum process size. To be able to access more memory, use configure(ADM) to change the MAXUMEM system variable.

Return value

Upon successful completion brk returns a value of 0, and sbrk returns the old break value. Otherwise, a value of -1 is returned and errno is set to indicate the error.

See also

end(S), exec(S), shmop(S)

Standards conformance

brk and sbrk conform to:

Intel386 Binary Compatibility Specification, Edition 2 (iBCSe2) .


© 2003 System Services (S)
SCO OpenServer Release 5.0.7 -- 11 February 2003