Does realloc free the former buffer if it fails? - realloc

Question

If realloc fails and returns NULL is the former buffer free'd or it is kept intact? I didn't found that particular piece of information in the man page and I'm quite unsure what to do. If memory is freed then double-free could be risky. If not then the leakage would occur.

Answer 1

No, it does not. That aspect has often annoyed me since you can't just use:
if ((buff = realloc (buff, newsize)) == NULL)
return;
in your code if you want to free the original on failure. Instead you have to do something like:
if ((newbuff = realloc (buff, newsize)) == NULL) {
free (buff);
return;
}
buff = newbuff;
Of course, I understand the rationale behind keeping the original buffer intact on failure but my use case has popped up enough that I generally code my own functions to handle that case, something like:
// Attempt re-allocation. If fail, free old buffer, return NULL.
static void *reallocFreeOnFail (void *oldbuff, size_t sz) {
void *newbuff = realloc (oldbuff, sz);
if (newbuff == NULL) free (oldbuff);
return newbuff;
}
// Attempt re-allocation. If fail, return original buffer.
// Variable ok is set true/false based on success of re-allocation.
static void *reallocLeaveOnFail (void *oldbuff, size_t sz, int *ok) {
void *newbuff = realloc (oldbuff, sz);
if (newbuff == NULL) {
*ok = 0;
return oldbuff;
}
*ok = 1;
return newbuff;
}
The relevant section in the C11 standard states (my italics):
7.20.3.4 The realloc function
If ptr is a null pointer, the realloc function behaves like the malloc function for the
specified size. Otherwise, if ptr does not match a pointer earlier returned by the
calloc, malloc, or realloc function, or if the space has been deallocated by a call
to the free or realloc function, the behavior is undefined. If memory for the new
object cannot be allocated, the old object is not deallocated and its value is unchanged.

Answer 2

realloc() returns a pointer to the newly allocated memory, which is suitably aligned for any kind of variable and may be different from ptr, or NULL if the request fails. If size was equal to 0, either NULL or a pointer suitable to be passed to free() is returned. If realloc() fails the original block is left untouched; it is not freed or moved.
malloc(3) - Linux man page

Answer 3

No. No change of the former buffer is done if realloc() failed.
man realloc(3):
realloc() returns a pointer to the newly allocated memory, which is suitably
aligned for any kind of variable and may be different from ptr, or NULL if the
request fails. If size was equal to 0, either NULL or a pointer suitable to be
passed to free() is returned. If realloc() fails the original block is left
untouched; it is not freed or moved.

Answer 4

No.It won't. Realloc changes increases/decreases the dynamic memory allocated via malloc or calloc. It will return NULL in case realloc fails while increasing memory but it won't change previously allocated memory. As Realloc computes new memory allocation from the base address of previously allocated memory, it does not perform any operation on the memory