Unlike automatic allocation, which can fail at run time with uncontrolled consequences, the dynamic allocation functions return an indication in the form of a null pointer value when the required storage cannot be allocated. The tool lint was the first such, leading to many others. The New Hacker's Dictionary 3rd ed. Tools such as Purify or Valgrind and linking with libraries containing special versions of the memory allocation functions can help uncover runtime errors in memory usage. Download Python source code and installers are available for download for all versions!
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