What is Memory Leak? How can we avoid?

Memory leak occurs when programmers create a memory in heap and forget to delete it.
Memory leaks are particularly serious issues for programs like daemons and servers which by definition never terminate.

/* Function with memory leak */
#include <stdlib.h> 
  
void f() 
{ 
   int *ptr = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int)); 
  
   /* Do some work */
  
   return; /* Return without freeing ptr*/
} 

To avoid memory leaks, memory allocated on heap should always be freed when no longer needed.

/* Function without memory leak */
#include <stdlib.h>; 
  
void f() 
{ 
   int *ptr = (int *) malloc(sizeof(int)); 
  
   /* Do some work */
  
   free(ptr); 
   return; 
} 

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