Synopsis

The return values from one or more library functions were not stored, returned, or passed as a parameter.

Enabled by default

Yes

Severity/Certainty

High/High

Full description

The return values from one or more library functions were not stored, returned, or passed as a parameter. If any of these functions return a pointer to newly allocated memory, and the return value is discarded, the memory is inaccessible and thus leaked. These functions are inspected: malloc(), calloc(), and realloc().

Coding standards

Code examples

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

#include <stdlib.h>

void example(void) {
  malloc(1);  //the return value of malloc is not
              // stored
}

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(1);  // OK - the return value of
                       // malloc is being stored in x
}