https://github.com/dweiller/zimalloc

General purpose allocator for Zig
https://github.com/dweiller/zimalloc

Last synced: about 1 month ago
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General purpose allocator for Zig

• Host: GitHub
• URL: https://github.com/dweiller/zimalloc
• Owner: dweiller
• License: mit
• Created: 2023-06-13T09:15:13.000Z (about 1 year ago)
• Default Branch: main
• Last Pushed: 2024-04-02T02:37:57.000Z (3 months ago)
• Last Synced: 2024-04-03T02:29:35.665Z (3 months ago)
• Language: Zig
• Homepage:
• Size: 137 KB
• Stars: 24
• Watchers: 2
• Forks: 0
• Open Issues: 7
• Metadata Files:
  • Readme: README.md
  • License: LICENSE

Lists

• awesome-zig - dweiller/zimalloc

README

        
# zimalloc

zimalloc is general purpose allocator for Zig, inspired by [mimalloc](https://github.com/microsoft/mimalloc).

## Status

This project is under development and should currently be considered experimental/exploratory; there

is no documentation and it has not been battle-tested. In particular there may be issues with

multi-threaded workloads. Contributions of any kind (PRs, suggestions for improvements, resources or

ideas related to benchmarking or testing) are welcome.

The allocator is significantly faster than `std.heap.GeneralPurposeAllocator(.{})` but should not

(yet) be expected to be competitive with other established general purpose allocators.

## Usage

To use the allocator in your own project you can use the Zig package manager by putting this in your

`build.zig`

```zig

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {

    // -- snip --

    const zimalloc = b.dependency("zimalloc").module("zimalloc"); // get the zimalloc module

    // -- snip --

    exe.addModule(zimalloc); // add the zimalloc module as a dependency of exe

    // -- snip --

}

```

and this to the dependencies section of your `build.zig.zon`

```zig

    .zimalloc = .{

        .url = "https://github.com/dweiller/zimalloc/archive/[[COMMIT_SHA]].tar.gz"

    },

```

where `[[COMMIT_SHA]]` should be replaced with full SHA of the desired revision. You can then import

and initialise an instance of the allocator as follows:

```zig

const zimalloc = @import("zimalloc");

pub fn main() !void {

    var gpa = try zimalloc.Allocator(.{}){};

    defer gpa.deinit();

    const allocator = gpa.allocator();

    // -- snip --

}

```

### Shared library

There is a shared library that can be used for overriding standard libc allocation functions.

It can be accessed from your `build.zig` like so:

```zig

pub fn build(b: *std.Build) void {

    // -- snip --

    const libzimalloc = b.dependency("zimalloc").artifact("zimalloc"); // get the zimalloc shared library

    // -- snip --

    exe.linkLibrary(zimalloc); // link to libzimalloc

    // -- snip --

}

```

If you just want to build the shared library and use it outside the Zig build system, you can build

it with the `libzimalloc` or `install` steps, for example:

```sh

zig build libzimalloc -Doptimize=ReleaseSafe

```

## Notes

  - The current implementation works on Linux, with other systems untested.

  - The main suite of tests currently used is `https://github.com/daanx/mimalloc-bench`

    which are run using `LD_PRELOAD`. Not all tests have been tried, but all those that have been tested

    run successfully.

  - No attempt has been made to make the allocator signal-safe.