From: H. Peter Anvin <hpa@zytor.com>
Date: Mon, 13 Mar 2006 06:41:35 GMT
Subject: Re: [PATCH] Trivial warning fix for imap-send.c
Message-ID: <4415141F.2080604@zytor.com>
In-Reply-To: <20060313033805.GB14601@coredump.intra.peff.net>

Jeff King wrote:
> 
> I think Linus has cut to the heart of the discussion (that it's worth
> git maintainers' sanity not to worry about such problems). However, for
> pedantry's sake, this is how malloc works:
> 
> A void pointer is guaranteed to be able to hold any type of pointer
> (either char * or struct foo * or whatever). The declaration of malloc
> indicates a return of void *. On a platform where it matters, the
> compiler generates code so that 
>   struct foo *bar = malloc(100);
> converts the void * pointer into the correct size (in the same way that
> assigning between differently sized integers works).
> 

Furthermore, the return value of malloc() (calloc, realloc, ...) is 
guaranteed to be a value suitable for casting to any pointer type for 
which at least one object can fit in the allocated memory block.

	-hpa