2 alloca -- (mostly) portable public-domain implementation -- D A Gwyn
4 edited 8/22/95, 2/28/96, 3/28/96 by BLP for PSPP
7 include config.h, since on VMS it renames some symbols.
8 Use xmalloc instead of malloc.
10 This implementation of the PWB library alloca() function,
11 which is used to allocate space off the run-time stack so
12 that it is automatically reclaimed upon procedure exit,
13 was inspired by discussions with J. Q. Johnson of Cornell.
15 It should work under any C implementation that uses an
16 actual procedure stack (as opposed to a linked list of
17 frames). There are some preprocessor constants that can
18 be defined when compiling for your specific system, for
19 improved efficiency; however, the defaults should be okay.
21 The general concept of this implementation is to keep
22 track of all alloca()-allocated blocks, and reclaim any
23 that are found to be deeper in the stack than the current
24 invocation. This heuristic does not reclaim storage as
25 soon as it becomes invalid, but it will do so eventually.
27 As a special case, alloca(0) reclaims storage without
28 allocating any. It is a good idea to use alloca(0) in
29 your main control loop, etc. to force garbage collection.
37 typedef void *pointer; /* generic pointer type */
38 #define NULL 0 /* null pointer constant */
41 extern pointer xmalloc ();
44 Define STACK_DIRECTION if you know the direction of stack
45 growth for your system; otherwise it will be automatically
48 STACK_DIRECTION > 0 => grows toward higher addresses
49 STACK_DIRECTION < 0 => grows toward lower addresses
50 STACK_DIRECTION = 0 => direction of growth unknown
53 #ifndef STACK_DIRECTION
54 #define STACK_DIRECTION 0 /* direction unknown */
57 #if STACK_DIRECTION != 0
59 #define STACK_DIR STACK_DIRECTION /* known at compile-time */
61 #else /* STACK_DIRECTION == 0; need run-time code */
63 static int stack_dir; /* 1 or -1 once known */
64 #define STACK_DIR stack_dir
67 find_stack_direction (void)
69 static char *addr = NULL; /* address of first
70 `dummy', once known */
71 auto char dummy; /* to get stack address */
77 find_stack_direction (); /* recurse once */
80 /* second entry */ if (&dummy > addr)
81 stack_dir = 1; /* stack grew upward */
83 stack_dir = -1; /* stack grew downward */
86 #endif /* STACK_DIRECTION == 0 */
89 An "alloca header" is used to:
90 (a) chain together all alloca()ed blocks;
91 (b) keep track of stack depth.
93 PORTME: It is very important that sizeof(header) agree with
94 malloc() alignment chunk size. The following default should
98 #define ALIGN_SIZE sizeof(double)
103 char align[ALIGN_SIZE]; /* to force sizeof(header) */
106 union hdr *next; /* for chaining headers */
107 char *deep; /* for stack depth measure */
114 alloca( size ) returns a pointer to at least `size' bytes of
115 storage which will be automatically reclaimed upon exit from
116 the procedure that called alloca(). Originally, this space
117 was supposed to be taken from the current stack frame of the
118 caller, but that method cannot be made to work for some
119 implementations of C, for example under Gould's UTX/32.
122 static header *last_alloca_header = NULL; /* -> last alloca header */
125 alloca (unsigned size) /* returns pointer to storage */
127 auto char probe; /* probes stack depth: */
128 register char *depth = &probe;
130 #if STACK_DIRECTION == 0
131 if (STACK_DIR == 0) /* unknown growth direction */
132 find_stack_direction ();
135 /* Reclaim garbage, defined as all alloca()ed storage that
136 was allocated from deeper in the stack than currently. */
139 register header *hp; /* traverses linked list */
141 for (hp = last_alloca_header; hp != NULL;)
142 if (STACK_DIR > 0 && hp->h.deep > depth
143 || STACK_DIR < 0 && hp->h.deep < depth)
145 register header *np = hp->h.next;
147 free ((pointer) hp); /* collect garbage */
149 hp = np; /* -> next header */
152 break; /* rest are not deeper */
154 last_alloca_header = hp; /* -> last valid storage */
158 return NULL; /* no allocation required */
160 /* Allocate combined header + user data storage. */
163 register pointer new = xmalloc (sizeof (header) + size);
164 /* address of header */
166 ((header *) new)->h.next = last_alloca_header;
167 ((header *) new)->h.deep = depth;
169 last_alloca_header = (header *) new;
171 /* User storage begins just after header. */
173 return (pointer) ((char *) new + sizeof (header));
177 #endif /* !__GNUC__ && !__BORLANDC__ */