[libc-commits] [libc] [libc] add shrink in-place support for reallocations (PR #200272)

Schrodinger ZHU Yifan via libc-commits libc-commits at lists.llvm.org
Thu May 28 13:59:56 PDT 2026


https://github.com/SchrodingerZhu updated https://github.com/llvm/llvm-project/pull/200272

>From 6c22212f9b88b6a0991def2bcde4b76fd95273f7 Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Yifan Zhu <yfzhu at google.com>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2026 13:55:52 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 1/2] [libc] add shrink in-place support for reallocations

---
 libc/src/__support/block.h                    | 16 +++---
 libc/src/__support/freelist_heap.h            | 52 +++++++++++++++++--
 libc/src/__support/freestore.h                |  2 +
 .../test/src/__support/freelist_heap_test.cpp |  3 +-
 4 files changed, 62 insertions(+), 11 deletions(-)

diff --git a/libc/src/__support/block.h b/libc/src/__support/block.h
index d45af1079a5bc..399a4db21fa00 100644
--- a/libc/src/__support/block.h
+++ b/libc/src/__support/block.h
@@ -191,7 +191,8 @@ class Block {
   /// field of the next block counts as part of the inner size of the block.
   /// `usable_space_alignment` must be a multiple of MIN_ALIGN.
   optional<Block *> split(size_t new_inner_size,
-                          size_t usable_space_alignment = MIN_ALIGN);
+                          size_t usable_space_alignment = MIN_ALIGN,
+                          size_t min_split_size = sizeof(Block));
 
   /// Merges this block with the one that comes after it.
   bool merge_next();
@@ -307,7 +308,8 @@ class Block {
 
   // Divide a block into up to 3 blocks according to `BlockInfo`. Behavior is
   // undefined if allocation is not possible for the given size and alignment.
-  static BlockInfo allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size);
+  static BlockInfo allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size,
+                            size_t min_split_size = sizeof(Block));
 
   // These two functions may wrap around.
   LIBC_INLINE static uintptr_t
@@ -393,7 +395,8 @@ optional<Block *> Block::init(ByteSpan region) {
 }
 
 LIBC_INLINE
-Block::BlockInfo Block::allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size) {
+Block::BlockInfo Block::allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size,
+                                 size_t min_split_size) {
   LIBC_ASSERT(alignment % MIN_ALIGN == 0 &&
               "alignment must be a multiple of MIN_ALIGN");
 
@@ -421,7 +424,7 @@ Block::BlockInfo Block::allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size) {
   }
 
   // Now get a block for the requested size.
-  if (optional<Block *> next = info.block->split(size))
+  if (optional<Block *> next = info.block->split(size, MIN_ALIGN, min_split_size))
     info.next = *next;
 
   return info;
@@ -429,7 +432,8 @@ Block::BlockInfo Block::allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size) {
 
 LIBC_INLINE
 optional<Block *> Block::split(size_t new_inner_size,
-                               size_t usable_space_alignment) {
+                               size_t usable_space_alignment,
+                               size_t min_split_size) {
   LIBC_ASSERT(usable_space_alignment % MIN_ALIGN == 0 &&
               "alignment must be a multiple of MIN_ALIGN");
   if (used())
@@ -449,7 +453,7 @@ optional<Block *> Block::split(size_t new_inner_size,
               "new size must be aligned to MIN_ALIGN");
 
   if (outer_size() < new_outer_size ||
-      outer_size() - new_outer_size < sizeof(Block))
+      outer_size() - new_outer_size < min_split_size)
     return {};
 
   ByteSpan new_region = region().subspan(new_outer_size);
diff --git a/libc/src/__support/freelist_heap.h b/libc/src/__support/freelist_heap.h
index 66f3739efe214..02d35b1f8ad49 100644
--- a/libc/src/__support/freelist_heap.h
+++ b/libc/src/__support/freelist_heap.h
@@ -53,6 +53,8 @@ class FreeListHeap {
 
   void *allocate_impl(size_t alignment, size_t size);
 
+  bool shrink_in_place(Block *block, size_t size);
+
   span<cpp::byte> block_to_span(Block *block) {
     return span<cpp::byte>(block->usable_space(), block->inner_size());
   }
@@ -97,7 +99,8 @@ LIBC_INLINE void *FreeListHeap::allocate_impl(size_t alignment, size_t size) {
   if (!block)
     return nullptr;
 
-  auto block_info = Block::allocate(block, alignment, size);
+  auto block_info =
+      Block::allocate(block, alignment, size, FreeStore::MIN_OUTER_SIZE);
   if (block_info.next)
     free_store.insert(block_info.next);
   if (block_info.prev)
@@ -158,6 +161,47 @@ LIBC_INLINE void FreeListHeap::free(void *ptr) {
   free_store.insert(block);
 }
 
+LIBC_INLINE bool FreeListHeap::shrink_in_place(Block *block, size_t size) {
+  size_t min_outer_size = Block::outer_size(cpp::max(size, sizeof(size_t)));
+  uintptr_t next_block_start = Block::next_possible_block_start(
+      reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(block) + min_outer_size, Block::MIN_ALIGN);
+  size_t new_outer_size = next_block_start - reinterpret_cast<uintptr_t>(block);
+  // only split the block if the trailing part can be inserted into freelist
+  if (block->outer_size() >= new_outer_size &&
+      block->outer_size() - new_outer_size >= FreeStore::MIN_OUTER_SIZE) {
+    // We must temporarily mark the block as free to allow splitting.
+    // A block's usable space overlaps with the next block's prev_ field. When
+    // the next block is created via splitting, its header constructor writes to
+    // its prev_ field (initializing it to 0). Since the original block is
+    // currently in use, this write will corrupt the last sizeof(size_t) bytes
+    // of active user data. We back up these bytes here and restore them after
+    // the split is completed.
+    cpp::byte *overlap_ptr =
+        reinterpret_cast<cpp::byte *>(block) + new_outer_size;
+    size_t backup;
+    LIBC_NAMESPACE::inline_memcpy(&backup, overlap_ptr, sizeof(size_t));
+    block->mark_free();
+    optional<Block *> next =
+        block->split(size, Block::MIN_ALIGN, FreeStore::MIN_OUTER_SIZE);
+    block->mark_used();
+
+    LIBC_NAMESPACE::inline_memcpy(overlap_ptr, &backup, sizeof(size_t));
+
+    // register the new block on successful split
+    if (next.has_value()) {
+      Block *next_block = *next;
+      Block *right = next_block->next();
+      if (right != nullptr && !right->used()) {
+        free_store.remove(right);
+        next_block->merge_next();
+      }
+      free_store.insert(next_block);
+    }
+    return true;
+  }
+  return false;
+}
+
 // Follows constract of the C standard realloc() function
 // If ptr is free'd, will return nullptr.
 LIBC_INLINE void *FreeListHeap::realloc(void *ptr, size_t size) {
@@ -180,10 +224,10 @@ LIBC_INLINE void *FreeListHeap::realloc(void *ptr, size_t size) {
     return nullptr;
   size_t old_size = block->inner_size();
 
-  // Do nothing and return ptr if the required memory size is smaller than
-  // the current size.
-  if (old_size >= size)
+  if (old_size >= size) {
+    shrink_in_place(block, size);
     return ptr;
+  }
 
   void *new_ptr = allocate(size);
   // Don't invalidate ptr if allocate(size) fails to initilize the memory.
diff --git a/libc/src/__support/freestore.h b/libc/src/__support/freestore.h
index 2dcb4b10b93d5..d611c17af4644 100644
--- a/libc/src/__support/freestore.h
+++ b/libc/src/__support/freestore.h
@@ -16,6 +16,8 @@ namespace LIBC_NAMESPACE_DECL {
 /// A best-fit store of variously-sized free blocks. Blocks can be inserted and
 /// removed in logarithmic time.
 class FreeStore {
+  friend class FreeListHeap;
+
 public:
   FreeStore() = default;
   FreeStore(const FreeStore &other) = delete;
diff --git a/libc/test/src/__support/freelist_heap_test.cpp b/libc/test/src/__support/freelist_heap_test.cpp
index 9d3a6b612555f..199408f39dac7 100644
--- a/libc/test/src/__support/freelist_heap_test.cpp
+++ b/libc/test/src/__support/freelist_heap_test.cpp
@@ -180,7 +180,8 @@ TEST_FOR_EACH_ALLOCATOR(ReallocSmallerSize, 2048) {
   void *ptr1 = allocator.allocate(ALLOC_SIZE);
   void *ptr2 = allocator.realloc(ptr1, kNewAllocSize);
 
-  // For smaller sizes, realloc will not shrink the block.
+  // For smaller sizes, realloc will shrink the block in-place, returning the
+  // same pointer.
   EXPECT_EQ(ptr1, ptr2);
 }
 

>From c12967584f9f68fed12f3db0476d078b37d6152e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Yifan Zhu <yfzhu at google.com>
Date: Thu, 28 May 2026 13:59:41 -0700
Subject: [PATCH 2/2] fix fmt

---
 libc/src/__support/block.h | 3 ++-
 1 file changed, 2 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/libc/src/__support/block.h b/libc/src/__support/block.h
index 399a4db21fa00..1da4fd804fee2 100644
--- a/libc/src/__support/block.h
+++ b/libc/src/__support/block.h
@@ -424,7 +424,8 @@ Block::BlockInfo Block::allocate(Block *block, size_t alignment, size_t size,
   }
 
   // Now get a block for the requested size.
-  if (optional<Block *> next = info.block->split(size, MIN_ALIGN, min_split_size))
+  if (optional<Block *> next =
+          info.block->split(size, MIN_ALIGN, min_split_size))
     info.next = *next;
 
   return info;



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