VirtualAllocEx function (memoryapi.h)
Reserves, commits, or changes the state of a region of memory within the virtual address space of a specified process. The function initializes the memory it allocates to zero.
To specify the NUMA node for the physical memory, see VirtualAllocExNuma.
Syntax
LPVOID VirtualAllocEx(
[in] HANDLE hProcess,
[in, optional] LPVOID lpAddress,
[in] SIZE_T dwSize,
[in] DWORD flAllocationType,
[in] DWORD flProtect
);
Parameters
[in] hProcess
The handle to a process. The function allocates memory within the virtual address space of this process.
The handle must have the PROCESS_VM_OPERATION access right. For more information, see Process Security and Access Rights.
[in, optional] lpAddress
The pointer that specifies a desired starting address for the region of pages that you want to allocate.
If you are reserving memory, the function rounds this address down to the nearest multiple of the allocation granularity.
If you are committing memory that is already reserved, the function rounds this address down to the nearest page boundary. To determine the size of a page and the allocation granularity on the host computer, use the GetSystemInfo function.
If lpAddress is NULL, the function determines where to allocate the region.
If this address is within an enclave that you have not initialized by calling InitializeEnclave, VirtualAllocEx allocates a page of zeros for the enclave at that address. The page must be previously uncommitted, and will not be measured with the EEXTEND instruction of the Intel Software Guard Extensions programming model.
If the address in within an enclave that you initialized, then the allocation operation fails with the ERROR_INVALID_ADDRESS error. That is true for enclaves that do not support dynamic memory management (i.e. SGX1). SGX2 enclaves will permit allocation, and the page must be accepted by the enclave after it has been allocated.
[in] dwSize
The size of the region of memory to allocate, in bytes.
If lpAddress is NULL, the function rounds dwSize up to the next page boundary.
If lpAddress is not NULL, the function allocates all pages that contain one or more bytes in the range from lpAddress to lpAddress+dwSize. This means, for example, that a 2-byte range that straddles a page boundary causes the function to allocate both pages.
[in] flAllocationType
The type of memory allocation. This parameter must contain one of the following values.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
Allocates memory charges (from the overall size of memory and the paging files on disk) for the specified
reserved memory pages. The function also guarantees that when the caller later initially accesses the memory,
the contents will be zero. Actual physical pages are not allocated unless/until the virtual addresses are
actually accessed.
To reserve and commit pages in one step, call
VirtualAllocEx with
Attempting to commit a specific address range by specifying MEM_COMMIT without MEM_RESERVE and a non-NULL lpAddress fails unless the entire range has already been reserved. The resulting error code is ERROR_INVALID_ADDRESS. An attempt to commit a page that is already committed does not cause the function to fail. This means that you can commit pages without first determining the current commitment state of each page. If lpAddress specifies an address within an enclave, flAllocationType must be MEM_COMMIT. |
|
Reserves a range of the process's virtual address space without allocating any actual physical storage in
memory or in the paging file on disk.
You commit reserved pages by calling
VirtualAllocEx again with
MEM_COMMIT. To reserve and commit pages in one step, call
VirtualAllocEx with
Other memory allocation functions, such as malloc and LocalAlloc, cannot use reserved memory until it has been released. |
|
Indicates that data in the memory range specified by lpAddress and
dwSize is no longer of interest. The pages should not be read from or written to
the paging file. However, the memory block will be used again later, so it should not be decommitted. This
value cannot be used with any other value.
Using this value does not guarantee that the range operated on with MEM_RESET will contain zeros. If you want the range to contain zeros, decommit the memory and then recommit it. When you use MEM_RESET, the VirtualAllocEx function ignores the value of fProtect. However, you must still set fProtect to a valid protection value, such as PAGE_NOACCESS. VirtualAllocEx returns an error if you use MEM_RESET and the range of memory is mapped to a file. A shared view is only acceptable if it is mapped to a paging file. |
|
MEM_RESET_UNDO should only be called on an address range to which
MEM_RESET was successfully applied earlier. It indicates that the data in the
specified memory range specified by lpAddress and dwSize
is of interest to the caller and attempts to reverse the effects of MEM_RESET. If
the function succeeds, that means all data in the specified address range is intact. If the function fails,
at least some of the data in the address range has been replaced with zeroes.
This value cannot be used with any other value. If MEM_RESET_UNDO is called on an address range which was not MEM_RESET earlier, the behavior is undefined. When you specify MEM_RESET, the VirtualAllocEx function ignores the value of flProtect. However, you must still set flProtect to a valid protection value, such as PAGE_NOACCESS. Windows Server 2008 R2, Windows 7, Windows Server 2008, Windows Vista, Windows Server 2003 and Windows XP: The MEM_RESET_UNDO flag is not supported until Windows 8 and Windows Server 2012. |
This parameter can also specify the following values as indicated.
| Value | Meaning |
|---|---|
|
Allocates memory using large page support.
The size and alignment must be a multiple of the large-page minimum. To obtain this value, use the GetLargePageMinimum function. If you specify this value, you must also specify MEM_RESERVE and MEM_COMMIT. |
|
Reserves an address range that can be used to map
Address Windowing Extensions (AWE)
pages.
This value must be used with MEM_RESERVE and no other values. |
|
Allocates memory at the highest possible address. This can be slower than regular allocations, especially when there are many allocations. |
[in] flProtect
The memory protection for the region of pages to be allocated. If the pages are being committed, you can specify any one of the memory protection constants.
If lpAddress specifies an address within an enclave, flProtect cannot be any of the following values:
- PAGE_NOACCESS
- PAGE_GUARD
- PAGE_NOCACHE
- PAGE_WRITECOMBINE
When allocating dynamic memory for an enclave, the flProtect parameter must be PAGE_READWRITE or PAGE_EXECUTE_READWRITE.
Return value
If the function succeeds, the return value is the base address of the allocated region of pages.
If the function fails, the return value is NULL. To get extended error information, call GetLastError.
Remarks
Each page has an associated page state. The VirtualAllocEx function can perform the following operations:
- Commit a region of reserved pages
- Reserve a region of free pages
- Simultaneously reserve and commit a region of free pages
You can use VirtualAllocEx to reserve a block of pages and then make additional calls to VirtualAllocEx to commit individual pages from the reserved block. This enables a process to reserve a range of its virtual address space without consuming physical storage until it is needed.
If the lpAddress parameter is not NULL, the function uses the lpAddress and dwSize parameters to compute the region of pages to be allocated. The current state of the entire range of pages must be compatible with the type of allocation specified by the flAllocationType parameter. Otherwise, the function fails and none of the pages is allocated. This compatibility requirement does not preclude committing an already committed page; see the preceding list.
To execute dynamically generated code, use VirtualAllocEx to allocate memory and the VirtualProtectEx function to grant PAGE_EXECUTE access.
The VirtualAllocEx function can be used to reserve an Address Windowing Extensions (AWE) region of memory within the virtual address space of a specified process. This region of memory can then be used to map physical pages into and out of virtual memory as required by the application. The MEM_PHYSICAL and MEM_RESERVE values must be set in the AllocationType parameter. The MEM_COMMIT value must not be set. The page protection must be set to PAGE_READWRITE.
The VirtualFreeEx function can decommit a committed page, releasing the page's storage, or it can simultaneously decommit and release a committed page. It can also release a reserved page, making it a free page.
When creating a region that will be executable, the calling program bears responsibility for ensuring cache coherency via an appropriate call to FlushInstructionCache once the code has been set in place. Otherwise attempts to execute code out of the newly executable region may produce unpredictable results.
Requirements
| Requirement | Value |
|---|---|
| Minimum supported client | Windows XP [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Minimum supported server | Windows Server 2003 [desktop apps | UWP apps] |
| Target Platform | Windows |
| Header | memoryapi.h (include Windows.h, Memoryapi.h) |
| Library | onecore.lib |
| DLL | Kernel32.dll |