Why is the use of alloca() not considered good practice?

Question

alloca() allocates memory on the stack rather than on the heap, as in the case of malloc(). So, when I return from the routine the memory is freed.

Answer 1

Most answers here largely miss the point: there's a reason why using _alloca() is potentially worse than merely storing large objects in the stack.

The main difference between automatic storage and _alloca() is that the latter suffers from an additional (serious) problem: the allocated block is not controlled by the compiler, so there's no way for the compiler to optimize or recycle it.

Compare:

while (condition) {
    char buffer[0x100]; // Chill.
    /* ... */
}

with:

while (condition) {
    char* buffer = _alloca(0x100); // Bad!
    /* ... */
}

The problem with the latter should be obvious.