Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!rutgers!sun-barr!cs.utexas.edu!usc!bloom-beacon!bu-cs!purdue!haven!adm!smoke!gwyn
From: gwyn@smoke.BRL.MIL (Doug Gwyn)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: effect of free()
Message-ID: <10731@smoke.BRL.MIL>
Date: 14 Aug 89 19:40:29 GMT
References: <319@cubmol.BIO.COLUMBIA.EDU>
Reply-To: gwyn@brl.arpa (Doug Gwyn)
Organization: Ballistic Research Lab (BRL), APG, MD.
Lines: 7

In article <319@cubmol.BIO.COLUMBIA.EDU> ping@cubmol.UUCP (Shiping Zhang) writes:
>Can anyone clarify this issue for me? Thanks.

After free(), the actual storage object itself is no longer valid.
All pointers to any part of it are no longer valid.
If you attempt to continue to use those pointer values, it may appear
to work for a while on some systems, but eventually you'll get into trouble.