C++: Memory allocators

Question

I\'ve heard about people using custom memory allocators for their project, particulary in C++.

• What is a custom memory allocator, compared to malloc?

Answer 1

malloc() is a library function in libc (or glibc) that makes a system call sbrk() when it needs to actually allocate more memory to the process. Together, malloc() and free() manage a list of memory blocks that are used when malloc(), calloc() etc. are called.

You can use a custom allocator when malloc()'s behavior isn't desired or you want to do additional work on top of malloc/free.