Memory Allocator

Camelot manages memory through the Allocator VTable and the Arena implementation.

Allocator

TIP

Rationale To eliminate hardcoded malloc and free calls which prevent memory tracking and testing.

Concept

The Allocator struct defines a generic interface for memory operations, decoupling data structures from absolute memory sources.

API Reference

`struct Allocator`

typedef struct Allocator Allocator;
struct Allocator {
    void* (*allocate)(Allocator* self, size_t size, size_t align);
    void  (*deallocate)(Allocator* self, void* ptr, size_t size);
};

`allocate`

Signature: void* (*allocate)(Allocator* self, size_t size, size_t align)
Description: Allocates a block of memory of the specified size and alignment.
Parameters:
- self: Pointer to the Allocator instance.
- size: The amount of memory to allocate in bytes.
- align: The memory alignment boundary.
Returns: An aligned pointer to a memory block.

`deallocate`

Signature: void (*deallocate)(Allocator* self, void* ptr, size_t size)
Description: Returns the block to the allocator.
Parameters:
- self: Pointer to the Allocator instance.
- ptr: Pointer to the memory block.
- size: The size of the memory block being returned.

CAUTION

Caveats Custom allocators must strictly respect the provided byte alignment parameters or risk alignment faults on ARM architectures.

Arena

TIP

Rationale To reduce the CPU overhead of tracking individual allocations via free-lists.

Concept

The Arena is a contiguous memory block managing object lifetimes within a strictly defined scope by bumping a pointer forward.

API Reference

`struct Arena`

typedef struct {
    Allocator base;
    u8* buffer;
    size_t capacity;
    size_t offset;
} Arena;

`ARENA_allocate`

Signature: void* ARENA_allocate(Allocator* self, size_t size, size_t align)
Description: Bumps the internal offset forward, allocating memory from the arena’s buffer.
Parameters:
- self: Pointer to the Allocator (which is cast internally to an Arena).
- size: The size to allocate.
- align: The byte alignment boundary.
Returns: Returns a memory pointer advanced by the requested size and alignment. If capacity is exceeded, it returns nullptr.

`ARENA_reset`

Signature: void ARENA_reset(Arena* self)
Description: Resets the arena’s offset to 0, effectively releasing all memory allocated from it simultaneously.
Parameters:
- self: Pointer to the Arena.

CAUTION

Caveats Memory cannot be freed individually. The entire arena must be reset at once via ARENA_reset which zeros the offset integer.