Returning pointer to malloc'd area

[icantthinkofone]

I'm confused about the pointer to a malloc'd area. I have something similar to this:

char*
called_function()
{
  char *p;
  p=(char*)malloc(32);
  return p;
}

main()
{
    char *p;
    p=called_function();
    /* do some stuff */
    free(p);
}

The main code does not work unless I remove the free(). Then it works perfectly. Why is that? Or should I be handling this differently? Note: *p is not manipulated in any way inside main().

[Athar]

"Doesn't work" is not an error description.
The code is correct, except for line 9, which must be int main().
Your problem is somewhere else.