brk, sbrk — change data segment size
#include <unistd.h>
int
            brk( | 
            void * | end_data_segment); | 
          
void
            *sbrk( | 
            intptr_t | increment); | 
          
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            Note | ||
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brk() sets the end of the
      data segment to the value specified by end_data_segment, when that
      value is reasonable, the system does have enough memory and
      the process does not exceed its max data size (see setrlimit(2)).
sbrk() increments the
      program's data space by increment bytes. sbrk() isn't a system call, it is just a C
      library wrapper. Calling sbrk()
      with an increment of 0 can be used to find the current
      location of the program break.
On success, brk() returns
      zero. On error, −1 is returned, and errno is set to ENOMEM. (But see Linux Notes below.)
On success, sbrk() returns a
      pointer to the start of the new area. On error, −1 is
      returned, and errno is set to
      ENOMEM.
4.3BSD; SUSv1, marked LEGACY in SUSv2, removed in POSIX.1-2001.
brk() and sbrk() are not defined in the C Standard
      and are deliberately excluded from the POSIX.1 standard (see
      paragraphs B.1.1.1.3 and B.8.3.3).
Various systems use various types for the parameter of
      sbrk(). Common are int, ssize_t,
      ptrdiff_t, intptr_t.
The return value described above for brk() is the behavior provided by the
        glibc wrapper function for the Linux brk() system call. (On most other
        implementations, the return value from brk() is the same.) However, the actual
        Linux system call returns the new program break on success.
        On failure, the system call returns the current break (thus
        for example, the call brk(0) can be used to
        obtain the current break). The glibc wrapper function does
        some work to provide the 0 and −1 return values
        described above.
On Linux, sbrk() is
        implemented as a library function that uses the
        brk() system call, and does
        some internal bookkeeping so that it can return the old
        break value.
This page is part of release 2.79 of the Linux man-pages project. A
      description of the project, and information about reporting
      bugs, can be found at
      http://www.kernel.org/doc/man-pages/.
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                 Copyright (c) 1993 Michael Haardt (michaelmoria.de), Fri Apr 2 11:32:09 MET DST 1993 This is free documentation; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by the Free Software Foundation; either version 2 of the License, or (at your option) any later version. The GNU General Public License's references to "object code" and "executables" are to be interpreted as the output of any document formatting or typesetting system, including intermediate and printed output. This manual is distributed in the hope that it will be useful, but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the GNU General Public License for more details. You should have received a copy of the GNU General Public License along with this manual; if not, write to the Free Software Foundation, Inc., 59 Temple Place, Suite 330, Boston, MA 02111, USA. Modified Wed Jul 21 19:52:58 1993 by Rik Faith <faithcs.unc.edu> Modified Sun Aug 21 17:40:38 1994 by Rik Faith <faithcs.unc.edu>  |