D383 - A zero-sized allocation returns a unique pointer, not null

Status: decided Date: 2026-08-29

A zero-sized allocation returns a real, unique pointer rather than null.

Why: The standard permits either answer, but this project emulates a platform, and the platform returns a unique pointer; the near-universal caller idiom checks only for null, so a null answer here reads as failure to callers written against the platform, not against the standard.

Rejected:

• Returning null for a zero-sized request: conforms to the standard but disagrees with the platform being emulated, and a caller cannot tell it apart from real exhaustion.