Xref: utzoo comp.sys.ibm.pc:9452 comp.lang.c:5524
Path: utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
From: brianc@cognos.uucp (Brian Campbell)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc,comp.lang.c
Subject: Re: Releasing heap space - MSC 4.0
Message-ID: <1961@cognos.UUCP>
Date: 10 Dec 87 18:44:02 GMT
Article-I.D.: cognos.1961
Posted: Thu Dec 10 13:44:02 1987
References: <279@dsacg1.UUCP>
Reply-To: brianc@cognos.UUCP (Brian Campbell)
Organization: Cognos Incorporated, Ottawa, Canada
Lines: 18

In article <279@dsacg1.UUCP> nts0699@dsacg1.UUCP (Gene McManus) writes:
> Is there a way to release large blocks of malloc'd heap space back to the 
> system when it is freed and no longer needed? General-purpose heap clean-up
> routine? I have an application that
> exec's other stuff (system("...") call) and I'd like to make all the memory
> available that I no longer need.

Quote from Microsoft Customer Support Engineer when I asked the same
question:

     The MSC  4.0 routine  free(), used  in conjunction  with malloc()
     does not actually return the memory back to the operating system.
     However, if  you use  halloc() to  allocate memory,  then hfree()
     will actually release the memory to the operating system.
-- 
Brian Campbell        uucp: decvax!utzoo!dciem!nrcaer!cognos!brianc
Cognos Incorporated   mail: POB 9707, 3755 Riverside Drive, Ottawa, K1G 3Z4
(613) 738-1440        fido: (613) 731-2945 300/1200, sysop@1:163/8