Here are some questions and answers used to better understand how C/C++ behaves under the hood. While most behaviour is dictated by the compiler and the options used, there are some general answers that apply. Memory management of function call stacks in CQ: After a function is called, what happens to the returned variable?
A: The EAX register for x86 architecture is used to store the return parameter. The calling convention __cdecl, __stcall, __fastcall will dictate how arguments are ordered for function stack and either the callee or caller will clean the stack. In both cases, the return value is copied onto a reserved register (EAX for x86). This is not a problem for nested functions, or recursion because there is never more than one return parameter at any one time. After calling a function, EAX is copied directly to any local variable that takes the value. No stack related memory operations apply. More information can be found here. | 