Memory Allocator (C)

A tiny, educational memory allocator that manages a fixed-size heap using a singly linked free list. It demonstrates block splitting, freeing, and coalescing with a debug heap dump.

Features

• Fixed-size 1 MiB heap stored in a static array
• Simple free-list allocator with block splitting
• Coalescing of adjacent free blocks on free
• Debug helper to print heap layout

Build

Requirements:

• CMake 4.2 or newer
• A C compiler that supports C11

Build steps:

cmake -S . -B build
cmake --build build

Run

./build/memory_allocator

The program runs a small allocation/free sequence and prints heap dumps after each step.

API (core functions)

voidheap_init(void);
void*xmalloc(size_tsize);
voidxfree(void*ptr);
voidheap_dump(void);

Project Layout

• CMakeLists.txt - CMake build configuration
• main.c - allocator implementation and demo