Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: What is alloca()? [Generated by bison from flex]
Message-ID: <1989Sep24.050214.13898@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <3823.2518c141@uwovax.uwo.ca>
Date: Sun, 24 Sep 89 05:02:14 GMT

In article <3823.2518c141@uwovax.uwo.ca> 2014_5001@uwovax.uwo.ca writes:
>... What does alloca() do?
>It does not appear in the TurboC 2.0 library, nor in Unix SysV
>man pages.

It's a nonstandard botch (originating in some poorly-designed ancient Unix
systems) that some of the Gnoids are really fond of.  The theory is that
it's malloc() except that the storage automatically goes away when you leave
the function it was called in.  This is more than a little difficult to
implement on some machines...
-- 
"Where is D.D. Harriman now,   |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
when we really *need* him?"    | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu