newCString -- to 'free' or not?

[Bayley, Alistair]

There are some useful guidelines hidden in section 8.2.3 of the GHC user's
guide:
 
http://www.haskell.org/ghc/docs/latest/html/users_guide/sec-ffi-ghc.html#AEN
10578
 
And Alistair Reid answers a similar question I asked:
  http://www.reid-consulting-uk.ltd.uk/docs/ffi-Common_Problems.html
(Common Problems: Are Ptr values deallocated?)


In the current CVS code newCString redirects to newCAString, which uses
mallocArray (or newArray), and which also states that storage must be freed:
 
http://cvs.haskell.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/fptools/libraries/base/Foreign/C/S
tring.hs?rev=1.14

You can also see that Foreign.Marshal.Utils.new uses malloc:
 
http://cvs.haskell.org/cgi-bin/cvsweb.cgi/fptools/libraries/base/Foreign/Mar
shal/Utils.hs?rev=1.12



> -----Original Message-----
> From: Peter Simons [mailto:simons at cryp.to] 
> Sent: 25 September 2004 21:38
> To: glasgow-haskell-users at haskell.org
> Subject: newCString -- to 'free' or not?
> 
> When I create a CString with Foreign.C.String.newCString, do
> I have to 'free' it after I don't need it anymore? Or is
> there some RTS magic taking place?
> 
> How about Foreign.Marshal.Utils.new and all those other
> newXYZ functions? 
> 
> Peter

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