Block allocation - GNU Scientific Library -- Reference Manual

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8.2.1 Block allocation

The functions for allocating memory to a block follow the style of malloc and free. In addition they also perform their own error checking. If there is insufficient memory available to allocate a block then the functions call the GSL error handler (with an error number of GSL_ENOMEM) in addition to returning a null pointer. Thus if you use the library error handler to abort your program then it isn't necessary to check every alloc.

— Function: gsl_block * gsl_block_alloc (size_t n)

This function allocates memory for a block of n double-precision elements, returning a pointer to the block struct. The block is not initialized and so the values of its elements are undefined. Use the function gsl_block_calloc if you want to ensure that all the elements are initialized to zero.
A null pointer is returned if insufficient memory is available to create the block.

— Function: gsl_block * gsl_block_calloc (size_t n)

This function allocates memory for a block and initializes all the elements of the block to zero.

— Function: void gsl_block_free (gsl_block * b)

This function frees the memory used by a block b previously allocated with gsl_block_alloc or gsl_block_calloc. The block b must be a valid block object (a null pointer is not allowed).