Wiki : ./Misc/Memory/Heap.md

HEAP

While the stack grows downward the heap grows upward towards the stack.

  ┌───────────────┐
  │               │
  │               │   Larger Addresses
  │               │         │
  │               │         │  The Stack Grows
  │    Stack      │         │     DOWNWARD
  │               │         │
  │               │         │
  │               │         ▼
  │               │
  ├───────────────┤  0x00001000 (Stack Pointer)───────── Top of the Stack
  │               │
  │               │
  │               │
  │               │
  │    Heap       │
  │               │
  │               │
  │               │
  │               │
  └───────────────┘

The heap is the region of your computer´s memory that is not managed automatically for you, and is not as tightly managed by the CPU. It is free-floating region of memory and is larger than the stack allocation of memory.

Programs can call =malloc()= or =calloc()= to allocate memory on the heap. Heap memory needs to be freed after using it with =free()=. If this step is not done, we´ll end up with a memory leak.

Unlike the stack, the heap does not have size restrictions on variable size. Variables created on the heap are accessible by any function. Making them essentially global in scope.

Memory Leak

Memory on the heap will still be set aside and won´t be available to other processes that need it.

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