Reserving and Committing Memory

The following example illustrates the use of the VirtualAlloc and VirtualFree functions in reserving and committing memory as needed for a dynamic array. First, VirtualAlloc is called to reserve a block of pages with NULL specified as the base address parameter, forcing the system to determine the location of the block. Later, VirtualAlloc is called whenever it is necessary to commit a page from this reserved region, and the base address of the next page to be committed is specified.

The example uses structured exception-handling syntax to commit pages from the reserved region. Whenever a page fault exception occurs during the execution of the __try block, the filter function in the expression preceding the __except block is executed. If the filter function can allocate another page, execution continues in the __try block at the point where the exception occurred. Otherwise, the exception handler in the __except block is executed. For more information, see Structured Exception Handling.

As an alternative to dynamic allocation, the process can simply commit the entire region instead of only reserving it. Both methods result in the same physical memory usage because committed pages do not consume any physical storage until they are first accessed. The advantage of dynamic allocation is that it minimizes the total number of committed pages on the system. For very large allocations, pre-committing an entire allocation can cause the system to run out of committable pages, resulting in virtual memory allocation failures.

The ExitProcess function in the __except block automatically releases virtual memory allocations, so it is not necessary to explicitly free the pages when the program terminates through this execution path. The VirtualFree function frees the reserved and committed pages if the program is built with exception handling disabled. This function uses MEM_RELEASE to decommit and release the entire region of reserved and committed pages.

The following C++ example demonstrates dynamic memory allocation using a structured exception handler.

// A short program to demonstrate dynamic memory allocation
// using a structured exception handler.

#include <windows.h>
#include <tchar.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>             // For exit

#define PAGELIMIT 80            // Number of pages to ask for

LPTSTR lpNxtPage;               // Address of the next page to ask for
DWORD dwPages = 0;              // Count of pages gotten so far
DWORD dwPageSize;               // Page size on this computer

INT PageFaultExceptionFilter(DWORD dwCode)
{
    LPVOID lpvResult;

    // If the exception is not a page fault, exit.

    if (dwCode != EXCEPTION_ACCESS_VIOLATION)
    {
        _tprintf(TEXT("Exception code = %d.\n"), dwCode);
        return EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER;
    }

    _tprintf(TEXT("Exception is a page fault.\n"));

    // If the reserved pages are used up, exit.

    if (dwPages >= PAGELIMIT)
    {
        _tprintf(TEXT("Exception: out of pages.\n"));
        return EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER;
    }

    // Otherwise, commit another page.

    lpvResult = VirtualAlloc(
                     (LPVOID) lpNxtPage, // Next page to commit
                     dwPageSize,         // Page size, in bytes
                     MEM_COMMIT,         // Allocate a committed page
                     PAGE_READWRITE);    // Read/write access
    if (lpvResult == NULL )
    {
        _tprintf(TEXT("VirtualAlloc failed.\n"));
        return EXCEPTION_EXECUTE_HANDLER;
    }
    else
    {
        _tprintf(TEXT("Allocating another page.\n"));
    }

    // Increment the page count, and advance lpNxtPage to the next page.

    dwPages++;
    lpNxtPage = (LPTSTR) ((PCHAR) lpNxtPage + dwPageSize);

    // Continue execution where the page fault occurred.

    return EXCEPTION_CONTINUE_EXECUTION;
}

VOID ErrorExit(LPTSTR lpMsg)
{
    _tprintf(TEXT("Error! %s with error code of %ld.\n"),
             lpMsg, GetLastError ());
    exit (0);
}

VOID _tmain(VOID)
{
    LPVOID lpvBase;               // Base address of the test memory
    LPTSTR lpPtr;                 // Generic character pointer
    BOOL bSuccess;                // Flag
    DWORD i;                      // Generic counter
    SYSTEM_INFO sSysInfo;         // Useful information about the system

    GetSystemInfo(&sSysInfo);     // Initialize the structure.

    _tprintf (TEXT("This computer has page size %d.\n"), sSysInfo.dwPageSize);

    dwPageSize = sSysInfo.dwPageSize;

    // Reserve pages in the virtual address space of the process.

    lpvBase = VirtualAlloc(
                     NULL,                 // System selects address
                     PAGELIMIT*dwPageSize, // Size of allocation
                     MEM_RESERVE,          // Allocate reserved pages
                     PAGE_NOACCESS);       // Protection = no access
    if (lpvBase == NULL )
        ErrorExit(TEXT("VirtualAlloc reserve failed."));

    lpPtr = lpNxtPage = (LPTSTR) lpvBase;

    // Use structured exception handling when accessing the pages.
    // If a page fault occurs, the exception filter is executed to
    // commit another page from the reserved block of pages.

    for (i=0; i < PAGELIMIT*dwPageSize; i++)
    {
        __try
        {
            // Write to memory.

            lpPtr[i] = 'a';
        }

        // If there's a page fault, commit another page and try again.

        __except ( PageFaultExceptionFilter( GetExceptionCode() ) )
        {

            // This code is executed only if the filter function
            // is unsuccessful in committing the next page.

            _tprintf (TEXT("Exiting process.\n"));

            ExitProcess( GetLastError() );

        }

    }

    // Release the block of pages when you are finished using them.

    bSuccess = VirtualFree(
                       lpvBase,       // Base address of block
                       0,             // Bytes of committed pages
                       MEM_RELEASE);  // Decommit the pages

    _tprintf (TEXT("Release %s.\n"), bSuccess ? TEXT("succeeded") : TEXT("failed") );

}