Why does the compiler complain when I do not cast the result of malloc?

Question

I am inspecting code that does not require explicitly casting result of malloc call but whenever I attempt to do this, the compiler throws an error.

i.e.

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Answer 1

Did you remember to include the function prototype? For malloc(3), this is:

#include <stdlib.h>

Answer 2

This happens if you use C++ compiler instead of C compiler. As C++ requires explicit casting. The problem is not just with (un)casting malloc result, but any void pointer to other pointer.