munmap_chunk(): invalid pointer

Question

I've spotted the error in my program and decided to write a simple one, which would help me understand what's going on. Here it is :

#include <stdio.h> #include <stdlib.h>  char * first() {     char * word = malloc(sizeof(char) * 10);     word[0] = 'a';     word[1] = 'b';     word[2] = '\0';     return word; }  char * second () {     char * word = malloc(sizeof(char) * 10);     word = "ab";     return word; }  int main () {     char * out = first();     printf("%s", out);     free(out);     out = second();     printf("%s", out);     free(out);     return 0; } 

The first() function is working properly, but the second() (exactly the free(out) ) genarates error:

Error in `./a.out': munmap_chunk(): invalid pointer: 0x0000000000400714 *** ababAborted (core dumped)

I don't understand why the first function is correct, but the second isn't. Could anyone explain why?

Answer 1

In the function second(), the assignment word = "ab"; assigns a new pointer to word, overwriting the pointer obtained through malloc(). When you call free() on the pointer later on, the program crashes because you pass a pointer to free() that has not been obtained through malloc().

Assigning string literals does not have the effect of copying their content as you might have thought. To copy the content of a string literal, use strcpy():

strcpy(word, "ab");