>>How-To-Repeat:
>ktrace something and wonder about that strange NAMI "/etc/malloc.conf",
>RTS of malloc.c and wonder even more

wow...that's cute.  if i read it correctly (the source, that is), it
checks in three places for configuration options and parses them all.

what i can see:

first, /etc/malloc.conf should be a symlink pointing to the options
themselves (eg, ln -s FOO /etc/malloc.conf, where FOO are the single
character options you want).

next, the environment variable MALLOC_OPTIONS is processed in the same
manner.

finally, if the developer compiled in some c code to the effect of

   extern char *malloc_options;
   malloc_options = "FOO";

then these options are processed last.  quite imaginative if you ask
me.  :)

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