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From: Keith Thompson <kst-u@mib.org>
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: A glitch regarding the usual malloc() idiom
Date: Wed, 27 Jul 2016 09:14:34 -0700
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raltbos@xs4all.nl (Richard Bos) writes:
> Malcolm McLean <malcolm.mclean5@btinternet.com> wrote:
[...]
>> magptr = malloc(40 * sizeof(int))
>> 
>> means allocate 160 bytes and assign to magptr.
>
> No, it doesn't.
>
>> Which almost always will be a buffer of 40 ints.
>
> The above is _always_ a buffer of 40 ints, not [almost] always. It
> _may_ be 160 bytes. If you need

(I inserted a missing "almost" in the above.)

I think Malcolm is using his own idiosyncratic meaning of the word
"buffer".  I can't be bothered to remember what it is, but I suspect
that given his definition, the malloc() call (if successful!) may or may
not create a "buffer".  (At least "buffer" isn't a word defined by the
standard.)

[...]

-- 
Keith Thompson (The_Other_Keith) kst-u@mib.org  <http://www.ghoti.net/~kst>
Working, but not speaking, for JetHead Development, Inc.
"We must do something.  This is something.  Therefore, we must do this."
    -- Antony Jay and Jonathan Lynn, "Yes Minister"