Re: [PATCH v2 05/13] reftable: utility functions

From: Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com>
Date: Oct 12, 2020, 15:25 UTC
Message-ID: <20201012152505.GB3740546@google.com>
In-Reply-To: <CAFQ2z_NL1UrmonMH3qLKrEkjsPjm9qTbtoeY0OHQZzkVW2t3-w@mail.gmail.com>

(+cc: Patrick Steinhardt from libgit2) Hi,

Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote[1]:

> On Fri, Oct 2, 2020 at 6:12 AM Jonathan Nieder <jrnieder@gmail.com> wrote:
>> Han-Wen Nienhuys wrote:

Show 7 quoted lines

>>> +     reftable_free(a);
>>> +}
>>
>> Are there other callers that need custom free?
>
> The libgit2 folks requested the ability to set memory allocation
> routines, hence reftable_free().

Thanks. Patrick or Han-Wen, can you say a little more about this use case? That would help with making sure we are making an API that meets its needs.

For example, is a custom allocator something that would be set globally or something attached to a handle? If the former, would code that uses xmalloc and free and gets #define-d away when used in libgit2 work? If the latter, what does the handle look like?

Thanks, Jonathan

[1] context: https://lore.kernel.org/git/pull.847.git.git.1600283416.gitgitgadget@gmail.com/T/#r2337ddc80848c80f6c9699d904ab64d4297d2c54