LibFreePooled

Free pooled memory (V33)

This function is a copy of the pool functions in V39 and up of EXEC. In fact, if you are running in V39, this function will notice and call the EXEC function. This function works in V33 and up (1.2) Amiga system.

The C code interface is _LibFreePooled() and takes its arguments from the stack just like the C code interface for FreePooled() in amiga.lib. The assembly code interface is with the symbol _AsmFreePooled: and takes the parameters in registers with the additional parameter of ExecBase being in a6 which can be used from SAS/C 6 by a prototype of:

void __asm AsmFreePooled(register __a0 void *,

Deallocates memory allocated by LibAllocPooled(). The size of the allocation *MUST* match the size given to LibAllocPooled(). The reason the pool functions do not track individual allocation sizes is because many of the uses of pools have small allocation sizes and the tracking of the size would be a large overhead.

Only memory allocated by LibAllocPooled() may be freed with this function!

Doing a LibDeletePool() on the pool will free all of the puddles and thus all of the allocations done with LibAllocPooled() in that pool. (No need to LibFreePooled() each allocation)

poolHeader

A specific private pool header.

memory

Pointer to memory allocated by AllocPooled.

memSize

The number of bytes allocated by AllocPooled. THIS MUST NEVER BE 0!

The pool functions do not protect an individual pool from multiple accesses. The reason is that in most cases the pools will be used by a single task. If your pool is going to be used by more than one task you must Semaphore protect the pool from having more than one task trying to allocate within the same pool at the same time. Warning: Forbid() protection *will not work* in the future. *Do NOT* assume that we will be able to make it work in the future. LibFreePooled() may well break a Forbid() and as such can only be protected by a semaphore.

The size of the memory allocation to be freed must match the size used when LibAllocPooled() was called. A mismatch may result in memory corruption or in memory remaining allocated which not even LibDeletePool() can release. THE SIZE OF THE MEMORY ALLOCATION MUST NEVER BE 0, OR INSTANT MEMORY CORRUPTION IS LIKELY TO FOLLOW!

If the address and allocation size cannot be matched against a puddle or large allocation which is part of the pool, an alert of type AN_BadFreeAddr will be triggered.

To track sizes yourself, the following example which assumes A6 contains ExecBase can be used:

AllocPooled(), CreatePool(), DeletePool(), LibAllocPooled(), LibCreatePool(), LibDeletePool(), exec/alerts.h