Synopsis

The return value for a library function that might return an error value is not used.

Enabled by default

Yes

Severity/Certainty

Medium/Medium

Full description

The return value for a library function that might return an error value is not used. Because this function might fail, the programmer should inspect the return value to find any error values, to avoid a crash or unexpected behavior. These functions are isnpected: malloc(), calloc(), realloc(), and mktime(). This check is identical to MISRAC2004-16.10, MISRAC++2008-0-3-2.

Coding standards

Code examples

The following code example fails the check and will give a warning:

void example(void) {
  malloc(sizeof(int));  // This function could fail,
                        // and the return value is
                        // not checked
}

The following code example passes the check and will not give a warning about this issue:

#include <stdlib.h>

void example(void) {
  int *x = malloc(sizeof(int));  // OK - return value
                                 // is stored
}