MSVCRT Heap?

[Guest]

I recently read that the heap that you access when you use malloc and free is
created by MSVCRT. Is the "default" or process heap ever used then if you're
not explicitly calling heapalloc with that heap? Why does MSVCRT not just use
this default process heap?

 

[Severian]

I recently read that the heap that you access when you use malloc and free is
created by MSVCRT. Is the "default" or process heap ever used then if you're
not explicitly calling heapalloc with that heap? Why does MSVCRT not just use
this default process heap?

1) So that the CRT can optimize memory management appropriately for C
programs.

2) So that the CRT can use VirtualAlloc to reserve address space
without committing it to the page file.

3) (Maybe) so that if the CRT heap is corrupted, the "non-C" parts of
the process (startup, shutdown, exception handling) have a usable
heap.

4) To make .obj modules compiled for use with different CRT DLLs or
static libraries incompatible regarding memory managmenet and create a
lot of activity on the vc newsgroups.

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the response, Severian...

-Ben

1) So that the CRT can optimize memory management appropriately for C
programs.

2) So that the CRT can use VirtualAlloc to reserve address space
without committing it to the page file.

3) (Maybe) so that if the CRT heap is corrupted, the "non-C" parts of
the process (startup, shutdown, exception handling) have a usable
heap.

4) To make .obj modules compiled for use with different CRT DLLs or
static libraries incompatible regarding memory managmenet and create a
lot of activity on the vc newsgroups.