Re: Destructor for a packet?

[Haobo Yu <haoboy@ISI.EDU>]

I think that if you really want variable-length data in a packet, it's
better to put them in the data_ areas in a Packet instead of creating a
new header and put a pointer there. The SRM agent may be an example
(srm.{h,cc}, srm-header.h). 

- Haobo

On Mon, 19 Jul 1999, Daniel Friedman wrote:

> I have created a packet header which looks something like this:
> 
> struct hdr_mypkt {
> 	// ...
> 	char *mydata;
> 	// ...
> }
> 
> ...and I dynamically allocate memory (using "new") for "mydata" to point
> to.  (This way I can change the length of a field in the packet.) The
> problem I have is that if I send such a packet through a link, and this
> packet overflows in the queue of the link, [it at least seems that] the
> memory dynamically allocated earlier is not freed.
> 
> Hence I think I need something like a destructor for this packet, which
> will free the memory. But how does one make a destructor, since custom
> packet types are not themselves classes in NS?
> 
> Or, if my approach is incorrect--either 1) in making a variable-length
> packet field, or in 2) freeing the memory of a dynamically-allocated
> field if the packet is dropped by queue overflow--, what should I be
> doing?
> 
> Many thanks for all suggestions!!
> --daniel
> 
> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------
>  Daniel Friedman    danielf@isr.umd.edu    http://www.isr.umd.edu/~danielf
> 
>