Re: Free-ing memory: not springing leaks?

[Matthew Heaney <matthewjheaney@earthlink.net>]

chris <spamoff.danx@ntlworld.com> writes:

> When you bind to c code, how do you deal with memory?  I bound to a
> function in Lua,
> 
>     function Lua_Version return ICS.Chars_Ptr;
>     pragma Import (C, Lua_Version);
> 
> but upon free-ing the memory it gave a storage_error.

You only free memory on the Ada side that has been allocated on the Ada
side.  If you have a ptr to memory that has been allocated on the C
side, there should also be a function to free that memory.

 
> How then, do you deal with memory leaks?  If you bind to a c function
> and it allocates a chunk of memory and returns it, how do get rid of it
> and not cause leaks?  Remove Free and no error occurs.  Perhaps this is
> a special case?

See above.

> I vaguely recall reading somewhere that in general you shouldn't free C
> allocated memory from Ada, but perhaps I was mistaken?

No, you are correct: don't do that.