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Would a malloc (alone) work? Doesn't it typically act as if the memory were allocated but not actually use physical RAM until the data is filled?

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I'm pretty sure that even if you malloc an enormous amount of memory, it will occupy close to no resources as long as the contents are not touched. Also related: "overcommit memory".

Linux is a bit strange when it comes to memory allocation, see eg:

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/lk/lk-9.html#ss9.6

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