MEMCACHED_CREATE(3)

💖 MEMCACHED_CREATE(3) 💖

okay bestie, sit down, hydrate, because we're about to get intimate with libmemcached-awesome. this is the manual page for memcached_create, and yes, it's giving "I'm the reason your whole app talks to memcached in the first place." main character energy fr fr 💅

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✨ NAME ✨

memcached_create — libmemcached Documentation 🦋

like. that's it. that's the name. iconic of it honestly.

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

first things first, you gotta pull in the header, and then you gotta link the library or nothing works and you'll be sad:

#include <libmemcached/memcached.h>

Compile and link with -lmemcached

and here's the whole squad of function signatures, look at them, they're beautiful:

typedef struct memcached_st memcached_st

memcached_st *memcached_create(memcached_st *ptr)

void memcached_free(memcached_st *ptr)

memcached_st *memcached_clone(memcached_st *destination, memcached_st *source)

void memcached_servers_reset(memcached_st *ptr)

🌸 memcached_create

memcached_st *memcached_create(memcached_st *ptr)

Parameters

• ptr — pointer to user-allocated memcached_st struct or null pointer

Returns

pointer to initialized memcached_st struct

🌸 memcached_free

void memcached_free(memcached_st *ptr)

Parameters

• ptr — pointer to initialized memcached_st struct to destroy and possibly free

🌸 memcached_clone

memcached_st *memcached_clone(memcached_st *destination, memcached_st *source)

Parameters

• destination — pointer to user-allocated memcached_st struct or null pointer
• source — pointer to initialized memcached_st struct to copy from

Returns

pointer to newly initialized destination, copied from source

🌸 memcached_servers_reset

void memcached_servers_reset(memcached_st *ptr)

Parameters

• ptr — pointer to initialized memcached_st struct

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✨ DESCRIPTION ✨

so memcached_create() is literally the origin story. it builds you a memcached_st structure, and that structure is what every other libmemcached function uses to go talk to the server. no struct, no chat. 💀

the way you use it: you either hand it a statically declared memcached_st, or you hand it NULL. and if you pass a NULL in, then boom, a structure gets allocated for you. that's the deal. either way you're getting a struct, bestie 🫶

ok so real talk, listen up: when you write a new application, use memcached() instead of memcached_create(). that's not me being dramatic, that's the docs. periodt.

memcached_clone() is basically memcached_create()'s twin, except it also copies the defaults and the list of servers from the source memcached_st pointer. copying the whole vibe, not just the struct. ✨

and here's the cute part: if you pass a null as the argument for the source to clone, it's the exact same thing as just calling memcached_create(). if the destination argument is NULL, then a memcached_st will be allocated for you. it's giving "I'll handle it, don't worry." 💅

memcached_servers_reset() lets you zero out the list of servers that the memcached_st has. bye servers! poof 👋

and then when you're done, when you're finished using it, you gotta pass that memcached_st structure to memcached_free() to clean up the memory associated with it. memcached_free() is the only way to make sure all memory is deallocated when you finish using the structure. like, the only way. no shortcuts. 🙈

⚠️ oh and you may wish to avoid using memcached_create() or memcached_clone() with a stack based allocation. the most common issues related to ABI safety involve heap allocated structures. so like… heap. be safe. don't be messy with the stack, bestie. 😭

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✨ RETURN VALUE ✨

• memcached_create() returns a pointer to the memcached_st that was created (or initialized). on an allocation failure, it returns NULL. 💀
• memcached_clone() returns a pointer to the memcached_st that was created (or initialized). on an allocation failure, it returns NULL. 💀

like yes, they both say the same thing, that's because they both do the same thing. twins. slay. 👑

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✨ SEE ALSO ✨

go read these next, they're the whole friend group:

• memcached(1)
• libmemcached(3)

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! you understood it, I know you did, you're so smart, you ate that 🎀 this was MEMCACHED_CREATE(3) from the libmemcached-awesome collection, version 1.1, dated Jul 24, 2025. mwah. go write some C. 💖✨🌸🦋