Re: malloc attributes and realloc

[Daniel Berlin <dberlin at dberlin dot org>]

On Jan 1, 2004, at 10:31 AM, Jeff Sturm wrote:

> On Thu, 1 Jan 2004, Joseph S. Myers wrote:
> > Can __attribute__((__malloc__)) safely be used on realloc-type 
> > functions?
>
> My non-expert understanding is "no"...
>
> > /* Reallocate memory without fail.  This works like xmalloc.  Note,
> >    realloc type functions are not suitable for attribute malloc since
> >    they may return the same address across multiple calls. */
>
> This comment is misleading.  The pointer address returned by a 
> malloc-type
> function isn't significant to alias analysis.

This isn't true.
It's quite significant, because it means it can't be the same pointer 
as before.
At least, that's what all the points-to analysis algorithms i'm aware 
of expect from a "heap allocation function".