jemalloc is a general purpose malloc(3) implementation that emphasizes fragmentation avoidance and scalable concurrency support. jemalloc first came into use as the FreeBSD libc allocator in 2005, and since then it has found its way into numerous applications that rely on its predictable behavior. In 2010 jemalloc development efforts broadened to include developer support features such as heap profiling and extensive monitoring/tuning hooks. Modern jemalloc releases continue to be integrated back into FreeBSD, and therefore versatility remains critical. Ongoing development efforts trend toward making jemalloc among the best allocators for a broad range of demanding applications, and eliminating/mitigating weaknesses that have practical repercussions for real world applications. jemalloc has evolved substantially over its lifetime, so although the older documentation is still broadly informative, many of the details are obsolete.
Features
- General purpose memory allocation functions
- Emphasizes fragmentation avoidance and scalable concurrency support
- Developer support features such as heap profiling
- Extensive monitoring/tuning hooks
- The manual page fully describes the API and options supported by jemalloc
- The malloc() function allocates size bytes of uninitialized memory