_heapwalk

The latest version of this topic can be found at _heapwalk.

Traverses the heap and returns information about the next entry.

Syntax

int _heapwalk(   
   _HEAPINFO *entryinfo   
);  

Parameters

entryinfo
Buffer to contain heap information.

Return Value

_heapwalk returns one of the following integer manifest constants defined in Malloc.h.

_HEAPBADBEGIN
Initial header information invalid or not found.

_HEAPBADNODE
Heap damaged or bad node found.

_HEAPBADPTR
_pentry field of the _HEAPINFO structure does not contain a valid pointer into the heap or entryinfo is a null pointer.

_HEAPEND
End of the heap reached successfully.

_HEAPEMPTY
Heap not initialized.

_HEAPOK
No errors so far; entryinfo is updated with information about the next heap entry.

In addition, if an error occurs, _heapwalk sets errno to ENOSYS.

Remarks

The _heapwalk function helps debug heap-related problems in programs. The function walks through the heap, traversing one entry per call, and returns a pointer to a structure of type _HEAPINFO that contains information about the next heap entry. The _HEAPINFO type, defined in Malloc.h, contains the following elements.

int *_pentry
Heap entry pointer.

size_t _size
Size of the heap entry.

int _useflag
Flag that indicates whether the heap entry is in use.

A call to _heapwalk that returns _HEAPOK stores the size of the entry in the _size field and sets the _useflag field to either _FREEENTRY or _USEDENTRY (both are constants defined in Malloc.h). To obtain this information about the first entry in the heap, pass _heapwalk a pointer to a _HEAPINFO structure whose _pentry member is NULL. If the operating system does not support _heapwalk(for example, Windows 98), the function returns _HEAPEND and sets errno to ENOSYS.

This function validates its parameter. If entryinfo is a null pointer, the invalid parameter handler is invoked, as described in Parameter Validation. If execution is allowed to continue, errno is set to EINVAL and the function returns _HEAPBADPTR.

Requirements

For more compatibility information, see Compatibility.

Example

// crt_heapwalk.c  
  
// This program "walks" the heap, starting  
// at the beginning (_pentry = NULL). It prints out each  
// heap entry's use, location, and size. It also prints  
// out information about the overall state of the heap as  
// soon as _heapwalk returns a value other than _HEAPOK  
// or if the loop has iterated 100 times.  
  
#include <stdio.h>  
#include <malloc.h>  
  
void heapdump(void);  
  
int main(void)  
{  
    char *buffer;  
  
    heapdump();  
    if((buffer = (char *)malloc(59)) != NULL)  
    {  
        heapdump();  
        free(buffer);  
    }  
    heapdump();  
}  
  
void heapdump(void)  
{  
    _HEAPINFO hinfo;  
    int heapstatus;  
    int numLoops;  
    hinfo._pentry = NULL;  
    numLoops = 0;  
    while((heapstatus = _heapwalk(&hinfo)) == _HEAPOK &&  
          numLoops < 100)  
    {  
        printf("%6s block at %Fp of size %4.4X\n",  
               (hinfo._useflag == _USEDENTRY ? "USED" : "FREE"),  
               hinfo._pentry, hinfo._size);  
        numLoops++;  
    }  
  
    switch(heapstatus)  
    {  
    case _HEAPEMPTY:  
        printf("OK - empty heap\n");  
        break;  
    case _HEAPEND:  
        printf("OK - end of heap\n");  
        break;  
    case _HEAPBADPTR:  
        printf("ERROR - bad pointer to heap\n");  
        break;  
    case _HEAPBADBEGIN:  
        printf("ERROR - bad start of heap\n");  
        break;  
    case _HEAPBADNODE:  
        printf("ERROR - bad node in heap\n");  
        break;  
    }  
}  

  USED block at 00310650 of size 0100  
  USED block at 00310758 of size 0800  
  USED block at 00310F60 of size 0080  
  FREE block at 00310FF0 of size 0398  
  USED block at 00311390 of size 000D  
  USED block at 003113A8 of size 00B4  
  USED block at 00311468 of size 0034  
  USED block at 003114A8 of size 0039  
...  
  USED block at 00312228 of size 0010  
  USED block at 00312240 of size 1000  
  FREE block at 00313250 of size 1DB0  
OK - end of heap  

.NET Framework Equivalent

Not applicable. To call the standard C function, use PInvoke. For more information, see Platform Invoke Examples.

See Also

Memory Allocation
_heapadd
_heapchk
_heapmin
_heapset