Reference Pointers

Reference pointers are the simplest pointers and require the least amount of processing by the client stub. These pointers are mainly used to implement reference semantics and allow for out parameters in C.

In the following example, the value of the pointer does not change during the call, although the contents of the data at the address indicated by the pointer can change.

A reference pointer has the following characteristics:

• It always points to valid storage and never has the value NULL.
• It never changes during a call and always points to the same storage before and after the call.
• Data returned from the callee is written into the existing storage.
• The storage pointed to by a reference pointer cannot be accessed by any other pointer or any other name in the function.