cJSON_Delete(); causes free(): invalid pointer: 0xb5db1e18

Question

code

    cJSON *body = cJSON_Duplicate(record, true);

    cJSON_AddItemToObject(body, KEY_LOG, log);

    cJSON *array_pl = cJSON_CreateArray();
    cJSON_AddItemToArray(array_pl, body);

    cJSON *payload = cJSON_CreateObject();
    cJSON_AddItemToObject(payload, KEY_PAYLOAD, array_pl);

cJSON_Delete(body);
cJSON_Delete(array_pl);
cJSON_Delete(payload);

Whenever I use cJSON_Delete() program gets crashed and gives error *** Error in `./sample': free(): invalid pointer: 0xb5db1e18 ***

I searched a lot about this but couldn't found a solution.

Please tell me how this works ?

Answer 1

Quoting from the https://github.com/DaveGamble/cJSON, so please read the documentation.

Important: If you have added an item to an array or an object already, you mustn't delete it with cJSON_Delete. Adding it to an array or object transfers its ownership so that when that array or object is deleted, it gets deleted as well.

Reference: Working with the data structure

So you just have to free the body and it will free the items allocated inside. Removing the other two deletes will solve the problem.

cJSON_Delete(body);