may gc free malloced memory?

[Rene Zwanenburg]

On Thursday, 12 September 2013 at 05:59:33 UTC, monarch_dodra
wrote:
> On Thursday, 12 September 2013 at 05:36:31 UTC, Alexandr 
> Druzhinin wrote:
>> Some C function malloc-ed memory. This memory should be freeed 
>> much later. I don't want to manually call C function to free 
>> this memory in some point later, so may I in some way ask gc 
>> to free this memory using something like addRoot(for instance) 
>> or else or the true way is to copy malloc-ed memory to 
>> gc-allocated memory and free malloc-ed memory at once? Like:
>>
>> ubyte data* = cfunction_allocates_memory();
>> auto gcmemory = data[0..length(data)];
>> cfunction_frees_memory(data);
>> // work with gcmemory only
>>
>> or
>>
>> ubyte data* = cfunction_allocates_memory();
>> GC.someUnknownToMeFunction(data); // now gc will control this 
>> memory
>
> No.
>
> Only free can be used with malloc. The memory comes from 
> distinct pools.
>
> Another option could be to use "GC.malloc", and memcpy your old 
> mmory into your new memory, free the old memory, and use your 
> new block. GC.malloc, as the name suggests, is a malloc, but 
> done by the GC.

You could also use some kind of helper class. Perhaps Phobos has
a facility for this, but to illustrate the idea:
http://dpaste.dzfl.pl/805a61c0

However note that the memory isn't guaranteed to be freed this
way. Only if the GC heap gets full and the collector runs.