malloc returns memory or virtual address space

Question

Does malloc allocate a block of memory on the heap or should it be called Virtual Address Space?

Am I being picky calling it Virtual Address Space or this just the legac

Answer 1

malloc() allocates the virtual memory, owned by the process.

During execution the process can be reloaded to the physical memory several times by the operating system. The operating system maps virtual addresses of each process to the physical memory. A process doesn't know the mapping.

Virtual address space space consist of

• system space (drivers) and
• user space (a program code area, a heap for dynamic memory allocation, and a stack for variables, arguments, return values, etc.)