VALGRIND invalid read of size 8, linked list, freeing nodes

Question

I'm trying to identify the reason why Valgrind is complaining.

If somebody could give me a hint so that I can understand why my code is generating bad behaviour I would be very grateful.

I've created an array of structures. Each entry is the beginning of a linked list made out of structs. Now I'm at the Point where I want to free the elements of each linked list of that array of structs.

But Valgrind is saying:

==15084== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==15084== Copyright (C) 2002-2013, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==15084== Using Valgrind-3.10.0 and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==15084== Command: /tmp/3RKi4ZeFa74f-a.out tests/16_allPositive output/ausgabe_16_allPositive
==15084== 
==15084== Invalid read of size 8
==15084==    at 0x402006: reset (1441261801.c:807)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084==  Address 0x51e0de8 is 8 bytes inside a block of size 16 free'd
==15084==    at 0x4C29E90: free (vg_replace_malloc.c:473)
==15084==    by 0x401FF5: reset (1441261801.c:809)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084== 
==15084== Invalid read of size 8
==15084==    at 0x401FEA: reset (1441261801.c:809)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084==  Address 0x51e0d48 is 8 bytes inside a block of size 16 free'd
==15084==    at 0x4C29E90: free (vg_replace_malloc.c:473)
==15084==    by 0x401FF5: reset (1441261801.c:809)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084== 
==15084== Invalid read of size 8
==15084==    at 0x401FFA: reset (1441261801.c:807)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084==  Address 0x51e0d48 is 8 bytes inside a block of size 16 free'd
==15084==    at 0x4C29E90: free (vg_replace_malloc.c:473)
==15084==    by 0x401FF5: reset (1441261801.c:809)
==15084==    by 0x402489: main (1441261801.c:927)
==15084== 
==15084== 
==15084== HEAP SUMMARY:
==15084==     in use at exit: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==15084==   total heap usage: 119 allocs, 119 frees, 7,787 bytes allocated
==15084== 
==15084== All heap blocks were freed -- no leaks are possible
==15084== 
==15084== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==15084== ERROR SUMMARY: 51 errors from 3 contexts (suppressed: 0 from 0)

That seems to be the faulty function

    void reset()
 784: {
 785:   //lösche alle (zeiger)char *arrays der conti structs
 786:   for(int i = 0; i < zeile1; i++)
 787:   {
 788:   struct node *p = &conti[i];
 789:   if((*p).next != NULL)
 790:   {
 791:       for(; (*p).next != NULL; p=(*p).next)
 792:       {
 793:                   free((*p).volume);
 794:       }
 795:                   free((*p).volume);
 796:   }else if ((*p).next == NULL)
 797:   {
 798:                   free((*p).volume);
 799:       }
 800:   }
 801:   //lösche die listenelemente der jeweiligen container
 802:   for(int i = 0; i < zeile1; i++)
 803:   {
 804:   struct node *p = &conti[i];
 805:   if((*p).next != NULL)
 806:   {
 807:       for(; (*p).next != NULL; p=(*p).next)
 808:       {
 809:                   free((*p).next);
 810:       }
 811:   }
 812:   }
 813:   //lösche die (zeiger)input char *arrays
 814:   for (int j = 0; j < zeile2; j++)
 815:   {
 816:       free(input[j].volume);
 817:       }
 818:   //lösche die struct arrays
 819:       free(conti);
 820:       free(input);
 821: }

The structures look like this:

  16: struct node {
  17:   char *volume;
  18:   struct node *next;
  19:   };

I'm looking forward for your help.

Answer 1

This is a fairly typical coding style which works until (a) you use valgrind or (b) actually have a system where another thread can get hold of your memory when you've freed it.

for(; (*p).next != NULL; p=(*p).next)
{
     free((*p).next);
}

As you go through that loop, you get hold of p and then you free the thing it is pointing to.

free(p->next); //p->next now points to freed memory

Then you get hold of the thing you've just freed

p = p->next; //p now points to freed memory

and then you tree to free what that is pointing to

free(p->next); //Trying to access freed memory

Then you have to have extra code to free the first element in the list because you can't have freed it in that loop.