jemalloc: 20 Years of an Open Source Memory Allocator

2025-06-13
jemalloc: 20 Years of an Open Source Memory Allocator

jemalloc, the open-source memory allocator, has had a 20-year journey since its inception in 2004. From its origins as a memory allocator for the Lyken programming language, to its integration into FreeBSD, and widespread adoption by Firefox and Facebook, jemalloc has gone through multiple phases and faced various challenges, such as fragmentation issues and the removal of Valgrind support. Although Facebook/Meta ultimately ceased active development of jemalloc, the code remains publicly available, and its development history offers valuable lessons for open-source software maintenance and community collaboration.

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Development memory allocator