What is malloc doing, anyway?
0 comments · c, unix
- Comments3
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#10Peak rank
2Days on list
155Score · 7d
Nov 9, 2026First seen
Rank · 7 days
On Lobsters
cunix
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- 19
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- 3
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- thasso
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- c, unix
- Site
- benmandrew.com
Story details from Lobsters ↗ · linked article on benmandrew.com.
Trending history
What is malloc doing, anyway? was first seen on Lobsters · Hottest on Nov 9, 2026. Since then it has appeared in 51 checks on 2 different days. Its best position was #10 of 25, reached on Nov 9, 18:51 UTC. It dropped off the list after Nov 10, 14:21 UTC. The same link also trended on Hacker News, which raises its cross-platform score.
Rank history
Position on Lobsters · Hottest at every check (lower is better).
Last 14 days
Best rank per day (UTC).
10
13
Oct 28today
Metric history
Platform metric as reported by Lobsters.
Where it trended
| List | Best | Days | Checks | Last seen |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Lobsters · Hottest | #10 | 2 | 51 | |
| YHacker News · Front page What is malloc doing, anyway? | same link | |||
From the discussion
A few top-level comments from Lobsters, shortened. Read the full thread on Lobsters.
This is a fairly nice introduction to memory allocation and the syscalls used to implement a memory allocator in a typical Unix userspace. A nice addition would be a discussion of the binary buddy allocation scheme, which is a fairly simple and elegant algorithm, which is used in some real physical memory allocators…
Unfortunately, binary buddy allocation has degenerate fragmentation behavior that's pretty easy to trip on. Hence segregated size classes in most modern allocators.
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Lobsters 2 days, best #10
Questions
Is What is malloc doing, anyway? trending on Lobsters right now?
Not at the moment. It was last on the list on Nov 10, 14:21 UTC, after 2 days of trending.
What is the highest rank What is malloc doing, anyway? reached?
#10 on Lobsters · Hottest, on Nov 9, 18:51 UTC. Trendoday checks this list every 30 minutes.
How long has What is malloc doing, anyway? been trending?
It was first seen on Nov 9, 2026 and has been on the list on 2 days (51 checks) since.