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> **Possible Duplicate:**  
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> [What are the differences between free, dealloc, release, and autorelease?](https://stackoverflow.com/questions/3335350/what-are-the-differences-between-free-dealloc-release-and-autorelease) 
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I want to get rid of my allocated memory used in my app. I know I need to use `release` but what is the difference between `free()` and `release`? Are they the same?