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Malloc, Line Pointers, and Valgrind

My program is similar to this ( main.c ):

#include <stdlib.h>
#include <stdio.h>
void main(){
  char *first="hello ";
  char *second="world!";
  char *seq=(char *)malloc((strlen(first)+1)*sizeof(char));
  strcat(strcpy(seq,first),second);
  printf("%s\n",seq);
  free(seq);
}

and I am debugging the valgrind tool, it said that ($: valgrind --tool = memcheck --leak-check = full --track-originins = yes./main):

==5118== Memcheck, a memory error detector.
==5118== Copyright (C) 2002-2008, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==5118== Using LibVEX rev 1884, a library for dynamic binary translation.
==5118== Copyright (C) 2004-2008, and GNU GPL'd, by OpenWorks LLP.
==5118== Using valgrind-3.4.1, a dynamic binary instrumentation framework.
==5118== Copyright (C) 2000-2008, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==5118== For more details, rerun with: -v
==5118== 
==5118== Invalid write of size 1
==5118==    at 0x402575B: strcat (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484EB: main (main.c:7)
==5118==  Address 0x418a02f is 0 bytes after a block of size 7 alloc'd
==5118==    at 0x402522D: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484C3: main (main.c:6)
==5118== 
==5118== Invalid write of size 1
==5118==    at 0x4025777: strcat (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484EB: main (main.c:7)
==5118==  Address 0x418a034 is 5 bytes after a block of size 7 alloc'd
==5118==    at 0x402522D: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484C3: main (main.c:6)
==5118== 
==5118== Invalid read of size 1
==5118==    at 0x4025963: strlen (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x40A0FA4: puts (in /lib/libc-2.10.1.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484F7: main (main.c:8)
==5118==  Address 0x418a02f is 0 bytes after a block of size 7 alloc'd
==5118==    at 0x402522D: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484C3: main (main.c:6)
==5118== 
==5118== Invalid read of size 1
==5118==    at 0x40ACEFE: _IO_default_xsputn (in /lib/libc-2.10.1.so)
==5118==    by 0x40AA3D0: _IO_file_xsputn@@GLIBC_2.1 (in /lib/libc-2.10.1.so)
==5118==    by 0x40A1020: puts (in /lib/libc-2.10.1.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484F7: main (main.c:8)
==5118==  Address 0x418a02f is 0 bytes after a block of size 7 alloc'd
==5118==    at 0x402522D: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484C3: main (main.c:6)
hello world!
==5118== 
==5118== ERROR SUMMARY: 17 errors from 4 contexts (suppressed: 13 from 1)
==5118== malloc/free: in use at exit: 7 bytes in 1 blocks.
==5118== malloc/free: 1 allocs, 0 frees, 7 bytes allocated.
==5118== For counts of detected errors, rerun with: -v
==5118== searching for pointers to 1 not-freed blocks.
==5118== checked 47,492 bytes.
==5118== 
==5118== 
==5118== 7 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 1 of 1
==5118==    at 0x402522D: malloc (in /usr/lib/valgrind/x86-linux/vgpreload_memcheck.so)
==5118==    by 0x80484C3: main (main.c:6)
==5118== 
==5118== LEAK SUMMARY:
==5118==    definitely lost: 7 bytes in 1 blocks.
==5118==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
==5118==    still reachable: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.
==5118==         suppressed: 0 bytes in 0 blocks.

Who can tell me why and how to fix it.

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5 answers
 char *seq=(char *)malloc((strlen(first)+1)*sizeof(char));

You allocate memory for a string that is just the first.

  strcat(strcpy(seq,first),second);

And then you try to insert both the first and the second into it. It will never work. strcatdoes not create more memory, you must enable this in malloc.

There is no need to return malloc result in pure C.

sizeof(char), 1. , , .

+17

free() malloc()?

+3

seq.

+2

seq (strlen (first) +1) * sizeof (char) long, , + .

+1

, :

strcat ( (, ), );

. , , . , 2 .

(, ); strcat (, );

This is because when you do string copying, it will copy the string from "first" to "seq". Now, to concatenate strings, since it could not find the correct source [remember that you did not specifically mention that the source is “seq”], it gives a memory leak problem with an incorrect write.

Hope this clarifies your question. Please come back if you need any additional information for the same.

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