Code snippet to simulate memory load

crazy_ram.c

// This program takes a integer N as input to "eat" N megabytes RAM
// to simulate arbitrary ram load in reality.
// 
// To run this program on CentOS:
// ```
// # install gcc
// $ yum install gcc -y
// # compile the program
// $ gcc -o crazy_ram crazy_ram.c
// # run the program to consume 1G RAM
// $ ./crazy_ram 1024
// ```
#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <errno.h>

#define MEGABYTE 1024*1024
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
        void *myblock = NULL;
        int count = 0;

        int i;

        char *p;
        int num;

        errno = 0;
        long conv = strtol(argv[1], &p, 10);

        // Allocate 2G RAM to simulate memory load
        for(i = 0; i < conv; i++)
        {
                myblock = (void *) malloc(MEGABYTE);
                if (!myblock) break;
                memset(myblock,1, MEGABYTE);
                printf("Currently allocating %d MB\n",++count);
        }

        while(1){}
        exit(0);
        
}