Anyone know the crypt() function? Why isn't there a memory leak?

Question

man crypt

crypt(3) - Linux man page

char *crypt(const char *key, const char *salt);

Return Value A pointer to the encrypted password is returned. On error, NULL is returned.

Since crypt is unknown unless key and salt is given, this should be a dynamically allocated memory, but valgrind doesn't agree..

Thanks.

Answer 1

From the page you linked:

The returned value points to the encrypted password, a series of 13 printable ASCII characters (the first two characters represent the salt itself). The return value points to static data whose content is overwritten by each call.

Answer 2

From the man page:

The return value points to static data whose content is overwritten by each call.

So this means it's not dynamically allocated - it's a single static allocation (just like a global variable).