[jacquesm]

> there is no good reason to read uninitialized memory, for example

That's an assumption on your part.

One very good reason might be to ensure that memory really is there given the optimistic allocation schemes and to force a page to be read into core. You could also write to it to get the same effect. Another good reason to do a read on uninitialized memory is to see what's still there from the previous program that ran. Now arguably that's a nefarious reason but it is still a good one and it may help uncover bugs in the underlying system.

[aidenn0]

The code doesn't read uninitialized memory. Automatic storage of objects need not be in memory. The C99 standard only uses the word "memory" in normative sections when talking about "malloc"