2.2 Replacement Functions

Some functions have extremely limited implementations on different platforms. Other functions are tedious to use correctly; for example, proper use of malloc calls for the return value to be checked and appropriate action taken if memory has been exhausted. A group of “replacement functions” is available in libiberty to address these issues for some of the most commonly used subroutines.

All of these functions are declared in the libiberty.h header file. Many of the implementations will use preprocessor macros set by GNU Autoconf, if you decide to make use of that program. Some of these functions may call one another.

• Memory Allocation: Testing and handling failed memory requests automatically.
• Exit Handlers: Calling routines on program exit.
• Error Reporting: Mapping errno and signal numbers to more useful string formats.