参考:http://www.gnu.org/software/libtool/manual/libc/Hooks-for-Malloc.html
3.2.2.10 Memory Allocation Hooks
The GNU C library lets you modify the behavior of malloc
, realloc
, and free
by specifying appropriate hook functions. You can use these hooks to help you debug programs that use dynamic memory allocation, for example.
The hook variables are declared in malloc.h.
The value of this variable is a pointer to the function that
malloc
uses whenever it is called. You should define this function to look likemalloc
; that is, like:void *function (size_t size, const void *caller)The value of caller is the return address found on the stack when the
malloc
function was called. This value allows you to trace the memory consumption of the program.
The value of this variable is a pointer to function that
realloc
uses whenever it is called. You should define this function to look likerealloc
; that is, like:void *function (void *ptr, size_t size, const void *caller)The value of caller is the return address found on the stack when the
realloc
function was called. This value allows you to trace the memory consumption of the program.
The value of this variable is a pointer to function that
free
uses whenever it is called. You should define this function to look likefree
; that is, like:void function (void *ptr, const void *caller)The value of caller is the return address found on the stack when the
free
function was called. This value allows you to trace the memory consumption of the program.
The value of this variable is a pointer to function that
memalign
uses whenever it is called. You should define this function to look likememalign
; that is, like:void *function (size_t alignment, size_t size, const void *caller)The value of caller is the return address found on the stack when the
memalign
function was called. This value allows you to trace the memory consumption of the program.
You must make sure that the function you install as a hook for one of these functions does not call that function recursively without restoring the old value of the hook first! Otherwise, your program will get stuck in an infinite recursion. Before calling the function recursively, one should make sure to restore all the hooks to their previous value. When coming back from the recursive call, all the hooks should be resaved since a hook might modify itself.
The value of this variable is a pointer to a function that is called once when the malloc implementation is initialized. This is a weak variable, so it can be overridden in the application with a definition like the following:
void (*__malloc_initialize_hook) (void) = my_init_hook;
An issue to look out for is the time at which the malloc hook functions can be safely installed. If the hook functions call the malloc-related functions recursively, it is necessary that malloc has already properly initialized itself at the time when __malloc_hook
etc. is assigned to. On the other hand, if the hook functions provide a complete malloc implementation of their own, it is vital that the hooks are assigned to before the very first malloc
call has completed, because otherwise a chunk obtained from the ordinary, un-hooked malloc may later be handed to __free_hook
, for example.
In both cases, the problem can be solved by setting up the hooks from within a user-defined function pointed to by __malloc_initialize_hook
—then the hooks will be set up safely at the right time.
Here is an example showing how to use __malloc_hook
and __free_hook
properly. It installs a function that prints out information every time malloc
or free
is called. We just assume here that realloc
and memalign
are not used in our program.
/* Prototypes for __malloc_hook, __free_hook */ #include <malloc.h> /* Prototypes for our hooks. */ static void my_init_hook (void); static void *my_malloc_hook (size_t, const void *); static void my_free_hook (void*, const void *); /* Override initializing hook from the C library. */ void (*__malloc_initialize_hook) (void) = my_init_hook; static void my_init_hook (void) { old_malloc_hook = __malloc_hook; old_free_hook = __free_hook; __malloc_hook = my_malloc_hook; __free_hook = my_free_hook; } static void * my_malloc_hook (size_t size, const void *caller) { void *result; /* Restore all old hooks */ __malloc_hook = old_malloc_hook; __free_hook = old_free_hook; /* Call recursively */ result = malloc (size); /* Save underlying hooks */ old_malloc_hook = __malloc_hook; old_free_hook = __free_hook; /*printf
might callmalloc
, so protect it too. */ printf ("malloc (%u) returns %p/n", (unsigned int) size, result); /* Restore our own hooks */ __malloc_hook = my_malloc_hook; __free_hook = my_free_hook; return result; } static void my_free_hook (void *ptr, const void *caller) { /* Restore all old hooks */ __malloc_hook = old_malloc_hook; __free_hook = old_free_hook; /* Call recursively */ free (ptr); /* Save underlying hooks */ old_malloc_hook = __malloc_hook; old_free_hook = __free_hook; /*printf
might callfree
, so protect it too. */ printf ("freed pointer %p/n", ptr); /* Restore our own hooks */ __malloc_hook = my_malloc_hook; __free_hook = my_free_hook; } main () { ... }
The mcheck
function (see Heap Consistency Checking) works by installing such hooks.