## 46.3. Memory Management

PostgreSQL allocates memory within memory contexts, which provide a convenient method of managing allocations made in many different places that need to live for differing amounts of time. Destroying a context releases all the memory that was allocated in it. Thus, it is not necessary to keep track of individual objects to avoid memory leaks; instead only a relatively small number of contexts have to be managed. `palloc` and related functions allocate memory from the “current” context.

`SPI_connect` creates a new memory context and makes it current. `SPI_finish` restores the previous current memory context and destroys the context created by `SPI_connect`. These actions ensure that transient memory allocations made inside your C function are reclaimed at C function exit, avoiding memory leakage.

However, if your C function needs to return an object in allocated memory (such as a value of a pass-by-reference data type), you cannot allocate that memory using `palloc`, at least not while you are connected to SPI. If you try, the object will be deallocated by `SPI_finish`, and your C function will not work reliably. To solve this problem, use `SPI_palloc` to allocate memory for your return object. `SPI_palloc` allocates memory in the “upper executor context”, that is, the memory context that was current when `SPI_connect` was called, which is precisely the right context for a value returned from your C function. Several of the other utility functions described in this section also return objects created in the upper executor context.

When `SPI_connect` is called, the private context of the C function, which is created by `SPI_connect`, is made the current context. All allocations made by `palloc`, `repalloc`, or SPI utility functions (except as described in this section) are made in this context. When a C function disconnects from the SPI manager (via `SPI_finish`) the current context is restored to the upper executor context, and all allocations made in the C function memory context are freed and cannot be used any more.