What's the point of malloc(0)?

Question

I just saw this code:

artist = (char *) malloc(0);

...and I was wondering why would one do this?

Answer 1

Here is the analysis after running with valgrind memory check tool.

==16740== Command: ./malloc0
==16740==
p1 = 0x5204040
==16740==
==16740== HEAP SUMMARY:
==16740==     in use at exit: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==16740==   total heap usage: 2 allocs, 2 frees, 1,024 bytes allocated
==16740==
==16740== All heap blocks were freed -- no leaks are possible

and here's my sample code:

#include 
#include 
#include 

int main()
{
   //int i;
   char *p1;

   p1 = (char *)malloc(0);
   printf("p1 = %p\n", p1);

   free(p1);

   return 0;

}

By default 1024 bytes is allocated. If I increase the size of malloc, the allocated bytes will increase by 1025 and so on.