int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    char *ret = setlocale(LC_ALL, NULL);
    // should I free 'ret' ???
    // free(ret);
    return 0;
}

Ich habe es sowohl unter Linux als auch unter OS X 10.10 versucht. Unter Linux darf ich nicht 'free' aufrufen, aber unter OS X klagt valgrind über einen Speicherverlust, wenn ich nicht 'free' anrufe.

==62032== Memcheck, a memory error detector
==62032== Copyright (C) 2002-2013, and GNU GPL'd, by Julian Seward et al.
==62032== Using Valgrind-3.11.0.SVN and LibVEX; rerun with -h for copyright info
==62032== Command: ./a.out
==62032== 
--62032-- ./a.out:
--62032-- dSYM directory is missing; consider using --dsymutil=yes
==62032== 
==62032== HEAP SUMMARY:
==62032==     in use at exit: 129,789 bytes in 436 blocks
==62032==   total heap usage: 519 allocs, 83 frees, 147,421 bytes allocated
==62032== 
==62032== 231 bytes in 1 blocks are definitely lost in loss record 63 of 91
==62032==    at 0x10000859B: malloc (in /usr/local/Cellar/valgrind/HEAD/lib/valgrind/vgpreload_memcheck-amd64-darwin.so)
==62032==    by 0x1001E68C8: currentlocale (in /usr/lib/system/libsystem_c.dylib)
==62032==    by 0x100000F6B: main (in ./a.out)
==62032== 
==62032== LEAK SUMMARY:
==62032==    definitely lost: 231 bytes in 1 blocks
==62032==    indirectly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==62032==      possibly lost: 0 bytes in 0 blocks
==62032==    still reachable: 94,869 bytes in 10 blocks
==62032==         suppressed: 34,689 bytes in 425 blocks
==62032== Reachable blocks (those to which a pointer was found) are not shown.
==62032== To see them, rerun with: --leak-check=full --show-leak-kinds=all
==62032== 
==62032== For counts of detected and suppressed errors, rerun with: -v
==62032== ERROR SUMMARY: 1 errors from 1 contexts (suppressed: 17 from 17)

So, in Linux, wenn ich "free" nenne, stürzt es ab. Wenn ich in OS X nicht "free" anrufe, ist ein Speicherverlust aufgetreten.