Synopsis

A function that allocates memory's return value is not stored.

Enabled by default

Yes

Severity/Certainty

Medium/Medium

Full description

A function that allocates a memory's return value is not stored. Not storing the returned memory means that this memory cannot be tracked, and therefore deallocated. This will result in a memory leak.

Coding standards

Code examples

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

#include <stdlib.h>

int *allocating_fn(void) {
  return malloc(sizeof(int));
}

void example(void) {
  allocating_fn();
}

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

#include <stdlib.h>

int *allocating_fn(void) {
  return malloc(sizeof(int));
}

void example(void) {
  int *p = allocating_fn();
}