URL: <https://savannah.gnu.org/bugs/?67936>
Summary: [libgroff] deprecate custom allocator
Group: GNU roff
Submitter: gbranden
Submitted: Mon 19 Jan 2026 11:15:42 PM UTC
Category: Core
Severity: 1 - Wish
Item Group: Feature change
Status: Postponed
Privacy: Public
Assigned to: None
Open/Closed: Open
Discussion Lock: Unlocked
Planned Release: None
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Follow-up Comments:
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Date: Mon 19 Jan 2026 11:15:42 PM UTC By: G. Branden Robinson <gbranden>
Records are scarce, but suggest that once upon a time you couldn't count on a
C++ runtime to manage heap memory (in Stroustrupese: "the free store") without
exploding.
_libgroff_ therefore has, for about 35 years, supported its own allocator,
which does the simplest possible thing and wraps the standard C library's
`malloc()` and `free()`.
This no longer seems necessary, and we've gone through an entire release cycle
(and a lengthy one, at 2½ years) without the issue coming up, despite the
fact that we aggressively defaulted this custom allocator **off**, exposing
all of our users to the tender mercies of their sundry C++ language runtimes.
For _groff_ 1.25, throw a configuration-time deprecation warning if this
feature is enabled.
In a subsequent release, rip it out.
Not applicable to the imminent (knock wood) _groff_ 1.24. Born postponed.
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