[cb321]

Kernighan & Ritchie's "The C Programming Language" also has an example implementation of malloc() & free() { for any-size requests as @kragen notes in sibling } in it in like 3 pages (though, sure, it is far from the most efficient implementation). Since it's the last section of the main text, I'd guess that most readers don't get that far (even though it's a short book).

[IgorPartola]

Even if you don’t program in C, I think K&R should be required reading for anyone who writes software for a living. You can finish it in an afternoon, or two days if you actually write and run the code outlined in the book.

My bucket list includes an item to write a novel efficient implementation of malloc/free. I have taken several stabs at this in the past but have never been happy with it. I have no real need of a custom allocator but it is something that I think would be very cool to have under my belt. This was inspired by K&R.