Memory Management Simulation

Overview

This repository contains a set of C files that simulate various memory management strategies in a custom memory allocation framework. It includes a memory allocator, a test runner, and a set of memory tests.

Memory Management Strategies

1. First-Fit: Allocates the first block of memory that is large enough to meet the request.

2. Best-Fit: Searches the entire list of blocks and chooses the smallest block that is adequate to fulfill the request.

3. Worst-Fit: Opposite of best-fit, this technique selects the largest available block, aiming to leave the largest remaining part possible after allocation.

4. Next-Fit: Similar to first-fit, but instead of starting the search from the beginning each time, it starts from where it left off last time.

Files

• mymem.c: Implements the memory allocation and deallocation functions. It supports different strategies like best-fit, worst-fit, first-fit, and next-fit.
• testrunner.c: A framework for running tests. It includes functions to execute tests within specified time limits and handle timeouts.
• memorytests.c: Contains various tests for the memory management system, including stress tests and tests for sequential and random allocations.

Running Tests

The tests are authored by L. Angrave.

To compile and run the tests, use the following commands:

make tests

or

gcc -o memtest mymem.c testrunner.c memorytests.c
./memtest -test <test_name> <strategy>

Test a specific strategy

To test a specific strategy, use the following command:

./mem -test <test_name> <strategy>

where <test_name> is the name of the test to run (e.g., stress, sequential, random) and <strategy> is the memory allocation strategy to use (e.g., first, best, worst, next).

Run as a docker container

To run the tests in a docker container, use the following commands:

docker build -t memory-management-tests .
docker run -it --name test-container memory-management-tests

This will build the docker image and run the tests inside the container.