BSON_LIFETIMES(3)

okay so bestie, this is BSON_LIFETIMES(3) from the libbson manual, and it’s literally about keeping your bson_t alive and not leaking memory 💅✨

A bson_t may contain its data directly or may contain pointers to heap-allocated memory. Overwriting an existing bson_t or allowing a stack-allocated bson_t to go out of scope may cause a memory leak. A bson_t should always be destroyed with bson_destroy(). no cap, that’s the whole vibe check 🫶

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✨ BSON_T OUT PARAMETERS ✨

A bson_t pointer used as an out parameter must point to valid overwritable storage for a new bson_t which must be one of:

1. Uninitialized storage for a bson_t.
2. A zero-initialized bson_t object.
3. A bson_t object initialized with BSON_INITIALIZER.
4. A bson_t object not created with bson_new() that was destroyed with bson_destroy().

This can be on the stack:

bson_t stack_doc = BSON_INITIALIZER;
example_get_doc (&stack_doc);
bson_destroy (&stack_doc);

Or on the heap:

bson_t *heap_doc = bson_malloc (sizeof (bson_t));
example_get_doc (heap_doc);
bson_destroy (heap_doc);
bson_free (heap_doc);

Omitting bson_destroy() in either case may cause memory leaks. like pls don’t do that 😭

🚨 WARNING 🚨

Passing a bson_t pointer obtained from bson_new() as an out parameter will result in a leak of the bson_t struct. big yikes 💀

bson_t *heap_doc = bson_new ();
example_get_doc (heap_doc);
bson_destroy (heap_doc); // Leaks the `bson_t` struct!

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👑 AUTHOR 👑

MongoDB, Inc

💖 COPYRIGHT 💖

2009-present, MongoDB, Inc.

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kisses bestie, this was libbson version 2.5.6, dated Oct 09, 2026 💖✨🎀