[Rd] R_AllocatePtr

[Douglas Bates]

On 7/19/05, Paul Roebuck <roebuck at odin.mdacc.tmc.edu> wrote:
> Had been looking into Luke Tierney's R_AllocatePtr() and
> was left with a question about exactly when does R reclaim
> heap memory. Implication of 'simpleref.nw' is that one can
> allocate C data on the R heap, and as long as pointer object
> is alive, the data and pointer will remain valid. But it
> calls allocString() which is implemented using R_alloc().
> 
> 'Writing R Extensions" says R will reclaim memory allocated
> using R_alloc() at the end of the .Call().
> 
> Was the intent that its invocation be restricted to within
> a .Call()? Doesn't sound as though it could be used to return
> an SEXP from a .Call() with its data intact.

Sounds like you may want an R external pointer object, which is also
documented in simpleref.nw