what is alloc.h?

Question

what is alloc.h? some questions on SO like this and this have included alloc.h.

but, when i tried to include it gcc gives error as error: alloc.h: No such file or directory

Has such file ever existed or those questions have included it just by mistake?

Answer 1

It's for dynamic memory allocation, but it isn't a ANSI C standard library. If you are using gcc then use stdlib for dynamic memory allocation:

#include <stdlib.h>

For some more information, have a look here.

If you read carefully the question you have linked, actually the problem was exactly trying to compile with gcc including that header. So don't use it.

Answer 2

It's a header file that declares memory-management functions like malloc, free, realloc.

That header file is deprecated.

For C use

#include <stdlib.h>

For C++ use

#include <memory>