Memory Leaks

Memory that is allocated but never freed — it slowly exhausts the heap.

Intermediate

void process(void) {
    char *tmp = malloc(256);
    if (error) return;     // LEAK: tmp is never freed on this path
    free(tmp);
}

Every malloc needs exactly one matching free on every path. Long-running programs (servers, firmware that runs for months) eventually crash from leaks. Use Valgrind or AddressSanitizer to detect them.

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