Why would I get a bus error or segmentation fault when calling free() normally?
- by chucknelson
I have a very simple test program, running on Solaris 5.8:
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
int main(void)
{
char *paths;
paths = getenv("PATH");
printf("Paths: %s\n", paths);
free(paths); // this causes a bus error
return 0;
}
If I don't call free() at the end, it displays the message fine and exits. If I include the free() call, it crashes with a bus error. I've had other calls to free(), in other programs, cause segmentation faults as well.
Even if I allocate the memory for *paths myself, free() will cause a bus error. Is there some reason trying to free up the memory is causing a crash?
