### Question 7.22

When I call `malloc` to allocate memory for a local pointer, do I have to explicitly `free` it?

Yes. Remember that a pointer is different from what it points to. Local variables are deallocated when the function returns, but in the case of a pointer variable, this means that the pointer is deallocated, not what it points to. Memory allocated with `malloc` always persists until you explicitly free it. In general, for every call to `malloc`, there should be a corresponding call to `free`.

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