Reference_Linking/rl.h

#pragma once
#include <stddef.h>

typedef struct Rl Rl;
typedef void (*Destructor)(void*);

struct Rl {
    void* ref;
    struct RlBox* owner;
    Rl* prev;
    Rl* next;
};

/*
 * rl_alloc has to be used for new object allocation of the size size.
 * reference will point to the new function afterwards.
 * owner should be the struct containing reference and may be NULL if Rl is on the stack or in a global variable.
 * The destructor has to rl_free all references inside the newly allocated object.
 *
 * This function disregards potential malloc() failures.
 */
void rl_alloc(Rl* reference, const void* owner, size_t size, Destructor destructor);

/*
 * rl_set has to be used to set the reference Rl to point to the same object as copy.
 * owner should be the struct containing reference and may be NULL if Rl is on the stack or in a global variable.
 */
void rl_set(Rl* reference, const void* owner, const Rl* copy);

/*
 * rl_free has to be called prior to discarding a Rl to prevent resource leaks.
 * Rl* has to point to a valid object (not NULL)
 */
void rl_free(Rl* reference);