README

node2.h (Basic linked-list memory handler)

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This is a small C library that provides a new way to allocate memory,
you can use this library to allocate memory but you are now able to
free all of that memory at once. This is similar to a arena allocator
in concept.

This library uses a linked list where we start with one node and
additional nodes can be added onto as a child element to other nodes.
Each node in this case, has a size and a `void*` pointer. This
pointer can be allocated too. Whenever an allocation happens we
search through a given node and its children, until we find an empty
node or until we reach the end of the linked list. We then allocate
memory to the pointer at this node index and then you can copy data
to that pointer.

When you're finished with the data you can free it just as if you
where using `free()` and `malloc()`. The largest upside of using a
linked-list for memory management is that you know where all of the
memory is. Instead in regular `malloc()`/`free()` the memory held at
a singular addresses that can only be referenced by the variable that
it was assigned too. Whereas in a linked list we always know where
the memory is, and we just hold a reference to the stack address in
any assigned variables. To conclude, this means that we can very
easily loop over all the items and the linked list and free them,
without needing to know the variables referencing each bit of data.

This can reduce accidental memory leaks as its now possible to
categorise and store memory in a persistent structure.

When writing this library I kept in mind the LOC, as for very
low-level utility libraries like this, you don't really want it
taking up much storage. This library provides the following memory
functions:

node_malloc   | Allocates memory (same as malloc)
node_free     | Frees memory (same as free)
node_realloc  | Reallocates memory (same as realloc)
node_destroy  | Removes all memory from a linked-list.
node_dup      | Similar to strdup but for all memory
node_string   | Allocates a string with null-terminator (Same as strdup)
node_h_memcpy | Copies memory from a to b (same as memcpy)

Check out the example below for a basic implementation, read node.h
for more information on the prior functions

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example.c
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#include <stdio.h> // for printf
#include <malloc.h> // for malloc_usable_size
#include "node2.h"

int main()
{
	// Define a starting node
	linked_list *table = NULL;

	char *msg = node_malloc(&table, 20);
	node_h_memcpy(msg, "test123", 7);
	msg[7] = '\0';

	printf("%s\n", msg);

	// alternatively you can strdup
	char *msg2 = nstrdup(&table, "Hello World!");
	printf ("%s\n", msg2);

	// only free the second message
	// (would lead to a memory leak 2 alloc 1 free)
	node_free(table, msg2);

	// realloc time
	printf("Size before realloc: %zu\n", malloc_usable_size(msg));
	msg = node_realloc(&table, msg, 30);
	printf("Size after realloc : %zu\n", malloc_usable_size(msg));

	// at this point, if we exit it would be 3 allocs 1 free.
	node_destroy(table);

	// entire table has been freed now
	return 0;
}
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Valgrind output for example.c:
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Memcheck, a memory error detector
Copyright (C) 2002-2024, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
Using Valgrind-3.25.1 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
Command: ./a.out

test123
Hello World!
Size before realloc: 20
Size after realloc : 30

HEAP SUMMARY:
    in use at exit: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
  total heap usage: 6 allocs, 6 frees, 1,135 bytes allocated

All heap blocks were freed -- no leaks are possible

For lists of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -s
ERROR SUMMARY: 0 errors from 0 contexts (suppressed: 0 from 0)