Introduction to Pointers

A definition

The concept of a pointer is one of the most important to understand thoroughly if you want to master Linux debugging. By definition, a pointer is a memory cell or a processor register that contains the address of another memory cell, as shown in the image below. It has its own address as any memory cell. Sometimes, a pointer is called an indirect address (vs. a direct address, the address of a memory cell).

Iteratively, we can add another level of indirection and introduce a pointer to a pointer as a memory cell or a processor register. This second pointer contains the address of another memory cell that contains the address of another memory cell, and so on.