Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!island!grenada!rtm
From: rtm@grenada.UUCP (Richard Minner)
Newsgroups: comp.lang.c
Subject: Buddy system allocator?
Message-ID: <426@grenada.UUCP>
Date: 21 Oct 89 04:39:11 GMT
Organization: Island Graphics, Santa Rosa, California
Lines: 21

From Doug Gwyn:
|In article <1175@svx.SV.DG.COM> gary@svx.SV.DG.COM () writes:
|>The correct answer is "malloc/free is somewhat broken in Sunos 4.0.1-3".
|>This has been mentioned before, in a Feb. Sun Spots article - here it is...
|
| That sounds more like a "buddy system" allocator working normally.

I'll bite, how does a "buddy system" allocator work, normally?
I can imagine why free'd blocks might "shrink" a bit but I'd
appreciate an overview from someone who actually knows.  Also,
if such a system can normally produce what I consider to be
counter-intuitive results (and gary@svx.SV.DG.COM considers
"somewhat broken"), what are its advantages?

If it's overly complex, a good reference would be nice.
Thanks.


-- 
Richard Minner  || {uunet,sun,well}!island!rtm     (916) 447-7081 ||
                || Island Graphics Corporation     Sacramento, CA ||